Welcome to the JULY 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. 

July 29, 2002
The following email was posted on the California Part-time Faculty Association listserv "El Chorro":

My congratulations to the part-time faculty at COC.

Margaret Quan 

July 28, 2002
The following email critcizing the CTA treatment of the state part-time faculty equity money came from the California Part-time Faculty Association listserv "El Chorro" - keep in mind that the CTA is the parent organization of the COC (full-time) Faculty Association:

I am Michael Kent.  I teach English part-time at three Southern California ("Inland Empire") community colleges: San Bernardino Valley College, Chafffey College, and Riverside Community College.  All three of these are represented by CTA, which I have never been convinced cares much about part-timers.  I am not an insider anywhere on bargaining or planning, but I want to give my "anecdotal" report on what each college seems to be doing with the part-time parity funds.  First I should say, however, that in none of these colleges has distribution of parity funds for part-time teaching been a clear, regular increase in pay.
 
Chaffey College: Here the union has apparently willingly agreed to a bargain that is clearly against the intent of the law (if not the law itself).  In the last contract part-timers were given a $3.00-an-hour raise, and the wording of the contract says that it is to distribute the "one-time" funding.  The $3.00 leaves Chaffey's pay still the lowest in the area, and it would probably have been given anyway since it is proportionally about the same as the increase given to full-timers.
 
San Bernardino Valley College: The previous contract expired over a year ago, but the issue of the part-time funds seems to have been ignored, or perhaps the funds are mixed up in the seemingly non-existent bargaining of a new contract.  Nevertheless, I have not heard or read one word on this issue at SBVC.
 
Riverside Community College: There have been some postings on the list about RCC.  The idea seems to be two payments for 2001-2002, amounting to about an 11% raise.  What this will mean in the 2002-2003 year is not clear to me.
 
As I implied above, I am basing these comments only on what I have heard, read, or seen on my paychecks; if anyone has more precise but equally clear information either on what the colleges are doing or should be doing, I would appreciate it.

July 27. 2002
The following email came from Harry Korn, Ventura College professor and grievance chair of AFT Local 1828:

Congratulations, . . .  You've been doing a great job in organizing and it is paying off. . .  Keep up the good work.

Harry

The following email came from a COC part-timer:

Right on, . . . 

F.

The following email came from American Federation of Teachers National Representative Linda Cushing, regarding lowered union dues for adjunct faculty in the AFT:

FYI - from AFT.

DUES CHANGE WILL HELP LOCALS REPRESENTING PART-TIMERS  

A small change to the constitution will make a big difference to locals representing part-time, adjunct and/or contingent employees.  Delegates at the AFT convention last week in Las Vegas approved a constitutional amendment that will allow locals to apply for a reduction in the per-capita payments on union members who are paid less than $10,000 a year‹which, sad to say, is the situation for many part-time and adjunct faculty. Formerly, the lowest per cap that could be paid was a one-quarter rate of $2.99 per member per month. The constitutional change gives locals the option to ask to pay $1/member/month for those lowest-paid workers. Speaking before the vote, AFT vice president William Scheuerman noted that the old dues structure could be a disincentive for unions to represent part-timers, because locals would have to kick in more in their per-cap payments than they could actually collect from the members. The change provides relief that will have an immediate impact, says Lou Stollar, president of the United College Employees/AFT of the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City. "For years, we have thought it was a wise expense" to subsidize part-time faculty in order to have them in the union. "Their numbers are great, they tend to be active, loyal unionists and are a force to be reckoned with." Noting that part-time faculty teach more than 50 percent of all the courses taught in community colleges nationally, Stollar says, "we want them in, not outside" the union.

July 26, 2002
While we wait for PERB’s final legal decision which will allow us to vote for our own union - WE CONGRATULATE THE DISTRICT AND CTA FOR ANNOUNCING “WE WILL ABIDE BY PERB’S DECISION”!

After the college and CTA attempted to scuttle a legal organizing drive by part-time faculty to form our own union, and to fight our efforts for self-determination in the courts, we can announce some good news to our part-time colleagues!  Part-Time Faculty United, the part-timers’ union, is pleased to acknowledge assurances by the COC governing board, administration and the California Teachers’ Association (the parent organization of COCFA) that they intend to abide by the pending decision of the Public Employment Relations Board (PERB), the California State agency charged with administering the Collective Bargaining Law. 

That decision – once and for all – will back out the illegal action of the district to force the part-time faculty without their knowledge or consent into the CTA full-time faculty union.  That decision will allow the cards signed by 58% of all part-time faculty – asking for representation by AFT and for a right to have our own election – to count for something. 

•  COC BOARD OF TRUSTEES SAYS, “WE’LL ABIDE BY PERB’S DECISION.”

The Board of Trustees is the major policy-making body of the college.  In October 2001 they directed the college administration to sign a back door agreement with the CTA full-timers’ union illegally accreting the part-timers into their union.  In January 2002, the Santa Clarita Community College District/ College of the Canyons Board of Trustees, when questioned at an open board meeting by a part-time faculty member, publicly announced that they would abide by any decision made by the Public Employment Relations Board in the matter of the Unfair Labor Practice charge filed by the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) on behalf of part-time faculty at the College. 

•  COC VICE PRESIDENT SAYS, “WE’LL ABIDE BY PERB’S DECISION.”

COC Vice-president Phil Hartley has publicly expressed his opinion that it would be better if part-time faculty were put in the full-timers’ union, but, in January of 2002, Dr. Hartley, Vice President of Instruction and Student Services, announced at the COC Adjunct Orientation meeting that, should PERB rule in favor of the adjunct organization COC Part-Time Faculty United/ AFT that “the college will abide by the decision.”  Again, on May 30, 2002, in a phone call to an AFT national rep, Hartley assured Linda Cushing that “We don’t have a dog in this race.  We can work with CTA or AFT.  We’ll accept PERB’s decision.” 

•  CTA STATE COLLEGE ASSOCIATION VP SAYS, “WE’LL ABIDE BY PERB’S DECISION.”

Although responsible for fighting to keep COC part-timers in the district’s “company union” by using CTA staff attorneys to prevent a vote, the most active CTA state official on campus agreed that CTA will abide by PERB’s ruling.  While staffing an information table at College of the Canyons in June 2002, CTA’s Community College Association vice-president, Rachel Maldonado-Aziminia, asserted that, should PERB make a ruling in favor of COC Part-Time Faculty United/ AFT, CTA “will abide” by the PERB’s ruling.

Since the fall of 2001, PART-TIME faculty at COC have worked hard for self-representation, and while we firmly believe this drawn out, costly, and difficult fight for our democratic rights could have and should have been avoided, we are nonetheless pleased that the SCCCD/ COC Board of Trustees, college management and the CTA/COCFA full-time faculty union have announced that they intend to support the imminent ruling by the state Public Employees Relations Board.  We expect a positive ruling and we are gratified that the college district and CTA are prepared to allow us to move on – to a legal vote and prospectively, self-determination in our own part-time faculty union – a union which will focus exclusively on the considerable interests of part-time faculty at College of the Canyons.

July 21, 2002
COC Part-Time Faculty United is now linked to the expansive labor web site XPDNC:

Hello,

This is a message from XPDNC, the most extensive labour link site on the web today.  A link to your site appears on our link page at: http://xpdnc.com/links/orgdrive.html
 

The following email came from a dismayed COC adjunct faculty:

Dear [COC Part-Time Faculty United],

Thanks for thinking of me but to date and as far as I know, I will not be teaching at COC this fall.  I think my Spring 2002 assignment was a 1-shot deal -- they had some sort of crisis and needed to fill a slot and somehow, I got the slot.  I never during the semester was contacted or got an answer to my inquiry whether I would be considered for future teaching assignments.  As far as I know, I no longer work for COC.  That's the major problem and "indignity" about part time temporary teaching.  I found COC to be the worst place I have worked as far as the administration and the administration logistics.  I  wasn't even on their computer to be paid and had to literally threaten them with legal action to get my first and second paychecks, both of which were written practically on the spot with estimated taxes taken out -- like a petty cash check.  I only got on their computer by the 3rd check and then, of course, I had to give them back money because they underestimated the amount of taxes they took out of the first 2 checks.  I have suspicions that something very illegal went on regarding my hiring and method of compensation but can't figure it out.  They were trying to get around some legality or other.  The staff was rude and played dumb like I was at fault.  I am sorry to say that my experience at COC was really unpleasant.  However, the students were terrific and the class-time was great fun for me and the students as well. . .

Good luck in your efforts.

E. 

July 14, 2002
COC Part-Time Faculty United/ AFT is organizing! The summer is rapidly passing and our organizing efforts are moving ahead!  In anticipation of this fall's elections and our organizing effort COC P-T United is pleased to announce that COC Part-Time Faculty United/ AFT has assembled an executive committee!

Meet Your Executive Committee

The COC Part-Time Faculty United/ AFT Executive Committee is currently made up of the following adjunct faculty at College of the Canyons:
 

Feel free to leave an e-mail with the email address on this website or contact them by clicking on their names above.

Our organizing effort is building and once we get an election, we will finally be able to choose union representation - PART-TIME FACULTY WORKING FOR PART-TIME FACULTY - to make effective changes for the benefit of adjuncts at College of the Canyons.

July 13, 2002
The following email came through from a COC adjunct faculty member (as usual, initials replace the name that was included in this message to maintain the writer's anonymity):

I have spoken to CTA reps regarding [part-time faculty] issues for many years.  Full-timers cannot make fair decisions for part-timers!  It's unrealistic to believe that anyone would vote for a pay cut, or an increase in insurance premiums for themselves so that some other group (that they probably do not really understand) might benefit. 

G.