Welcome to the DECEMBER History Page of
 COC Part-Time Faculty United

College of the Canyons Part-Time Faculty United
Building a better profession, a better institution and better student learning.

The following information includes emails come from several sources (including California adjunct organization listservs).  There are included here for there direct or indirect relevance to the part-time faculty organizing campaign at College of the Canyons.  The names of Part-Time Faculty at COC (excepting the organizing committe) and VVC who authored some of the emails that follow are omitted to preserve their anonimity.

December 24, 2001
The following email announcement was sent by COC Part-Time Faculty United/ AFT founder and Part-Time Faculty Representative to the Academic Senate, Marcy Bregman:

Subject: Fwd: Emergency Adjunct Meeting Dec 26

Emergency Email Adjunct Newsletter

The heated discussion between COCFA/CTA reps & AFT reps at the 12/15 meeting convinced everyone that the part-timers needed their own union to negotiate for their own needs. Most were undecided when they first arrived Sat. afternoon. The overbearing rude manner of one of the CTA reps was so obnoxious, most of the audience was convinced that it would not be in the part-timers best interests to have COCFA (full-time faculty) represent us.

The audience was extremely disconcerted at the way COCFA tried to herd the part-time faculty into their union, without any consideration of what the part-timers might desire. When asked by the audience why they did not ask any of the partimers what they wanted to do, one CTA rep [Ray Barney] replied, "It's a done deal and there is nothing you can do about it!"

This attitude by COCFA & CTA galvanized the participants to form a core group and address some stategies that will empower adjuncts to decide what union they do want to represent them. It seems that  it is NOT a done deal and the plans of COCFA can still be thwarted. However, time is of the essence. . . 

The COCFA is in position to vote us into their union and set the ground rules for our participation (voting rights, etc) at their Jan 11th meeting, planned for 3-5pm on campus. If they succeed in that attempt, it will then be too late to do anything about the situation from that point forward. Understanding that this is very short notice, we hope everyone will try their level best to attend.

We look forward to seeing as many of adjuncts as possible on Dec 26th so that we can learn more about our options, legal and otherwise, and do some serious planning about what to do next.  We need to act promptly, before the choice is taken completely out of our hands.

Marcy Bregman

December 18, 2001
The following email communication from Marcy Bregman includes COCFA President Lea Templer's message to her, announcing that the COC part-timers were now members of the CTA/ COCFA:

This is the letter Lea initially sent me.  She also spoke to me on campus - before the Sat. Adjunct meeting. This is the gist of her constant message.

----- Original Message -----
From: Templer, Lea
To: 'marcy bregman'

Hi,

The adjunct faculty is now part of the COCFA/CTA/NEA.  AFT is no longer involved.  I left flyers in every adjunct's box this morning informing them of two meetings scheduled in January to answer their questions as well as the full timers' questions.  The meeting this coming Saturday needs to be cancelled.  I wished you had talked to me before calling the AFT folks.  They have been told by PERB that they are no longer involved with our adjunct faculty.  I am not trying to postpone meeting with the adjunct faculty but we felt that meeting everyone in January is less hectic as we are not teaching . . .

Lea Templer

December 17, 2001
The following email came to COC Part-Time Faculty United/ AFT from COC history instructor Michael Ward:

Hi Marcy,
 
Thanks for getting back to me and for the work that you are doing on all of our behalf. . . 

Again, THANK YOU for doing all of this!  Please keep me posted and let me know what I can do to help.
 
Michael

December 16, 2001
The following email was from COC Part-Time Faculty United/ AFT founder and Part-Time Faculty Representative to the Academic Senate, Marcy Bregman, in communication to Michael Ward:

Good to hear from you Michael. We have had a good response from people who are interested in getting a union going for part-timers but were unable to get to the 12/15 meeting. There was quite a heated discussion between COCFA reps & AFT reps. Most were undecided when they first arrived Sat. afternoon, but the overbearing rude manner of one of the CTA reps was so obnoxious, most of the audience were completely turned off (and turned "on" to AFT).
 
A core group seems to be forming. We want to have a meeting off-campus, between 12/26 & 12/29, morning or evening, where we can learn more options and get more info. 

We expect someone from CPFA (Calif. Partime Faculty Association), PERB (Public Employee Relations Board), a member of the Board of FACCC (Faculty Association of Calif. Comm. Colleges), and a labor lawyer (representing a variety of unions) to answer questions for us from an experienced, broad-based, and unbiased perspective. . . .
 
Marcy Bregman