AFT 1521 Pierce Chapter
Spring 2013 Information
Something for everyone:
• February Luncheon Meeting—Thursday
Feb 21 — save the date — in the Great Hall, at 12:45 - 2:00
featuring AFT endorsed Board of Trustees candidates:
Mike Eng and David Vela
• Dear Friend Cards:
You should have received several ‘Dear Friend’
postcards in the mail and a letter from our Guild President, Joanne Waddell, asking that you send
them to voting family members and friends recommending our two AFT endorsed Board of
Trustees candidates Mike Eng and David Vela. Contact me for more cards and you can put
addressed ones in my mailbox (# 215) so that the Guild can attach postage. Surely you can do
10 or 15 cards. Your family and friends depend on you to guide them on our obscure community
college board races!
• Phone Bank Opportunity:
Come phone bank at the Guild next
Tuesday or Wednesday, Feb 12 or 13 , 6-8 PM, to your AFT colleagues living in the LACCD
service area zip codes concerning the Board of Trustees election on Tuesday March 5.
• Governor’s Budget:
Governor Brown’s proposed 2013-2014 budget provides, for the first time since 2009, that
community colleges (and all sectors of higher education), actually receive more funding than the
previous year’s budget---thanks to the voters for approval of Prop. 30 (and more specifically
thanks to the incredible effort that the California Federation of Teachers, our state organization,
mounted for making Prop. 30 the best and most progressive revenue mechanism in the country
and for working tirelessly to secure its passage). Of course the funds restored by Prop. 30 do not
nearly make up for the past 5 years of cuts, but at least we are headed in the right direction.
Pierce has seen about 50 more classes this spring and we anticipate a robust summer session of
about 150 sections from the Prop. 30 dollars. It will continue to produce added revenue for the
next 4 years for sure. Those funds also allowed for shifting other funds into badly needed areas
such as for:
1. restoring a base funding for supplies per fulltime equivalent employee;
2. funding for supplemental software and equipment;
3. funding for tutors;
4. funding for library resources;
Don Sparks,
AFT Chapter President
5. various labor costs for faculty, classified and administration;
6. a stolen equipment line item;
7. a special permits budget line item;
8 funding for President’s community outreach;
9. funding 2012 Resource Advisory Committee list items that were not yet acquired; and
10. restorations of some cadets in the Sheriff’s office.
• Guild Benefits Conference —Friday
April 19 — save the date —
The Guild’s 10th Benefits
conference will take place featuring all you want to know about financial planning for your near
or far future, health and medical benefits, HRA $, changes in your pension system and much,
much more. Stay tuned for further information but save the date!
• Impending Mar 11-14 Accreditation Visit:
Although CFT and AFT have issues with the Accrediting Commission (ACCJC)1, accreditation
itself is a process that we have had to (and will continue to need to) engage in for the life of the
College, now and in the future. We must congratulate ourselves here at Pierce for the herculean
effort that has occurred, with particular notice to the exuberantly excellent leadership of Mia
Wood, our Accreditation Coordinator, of VP Anna Davies, of our President, Kathleen BurkeKelly and the dozens of faculty, administrators, staff, and students that either co-chaired and/or
participated directly in the various Standards’ Committees resulting in the creation of our Self
Evaluation (http://acred.piercecollege.edu/final/Pierce%20College%20Self-Evaluation.pdf ).
It is in all our best interests to make the accreditation visit, March 11-14, as successful as
possible. Be sure to become familiar with the Self Evaluation, attend preparation meetings, and
read the FAQs sheet (http://acred.piercecollege.edu/faqs.html) so you are prepared to support the
college during the visit.
• CalSTRS Sells Its Gun Shares:
Our pension system, CalSTRS formally divested itself from firms involved in making
semiautomatic weapons of the type used in at Sandy Hook, Aurora, Columbine, and others. I am
proud of them.
Something for Department
Chairs and Potential
Retirees:
• Retirees and Seniority Lists:
As previously reported, with the change in law affecting CalSTRS retirements, there is now an
180 day period during which fulltime or adjunct retirees may not do any teaching (unless they
want to do it for free because STRS will reduce their pension dollar for dollar for any STRS
creditable earnings in that half year period). As chairs, you must still make seniority offers to
any so affected. If they refuse due to this change in law, it shall be counted as a “withdrawal”,
1
for its highly disproportionate number of sanctions to community colleges in its region of
responsibility (primarily California) compared to all its counterparts in the entire rest of the
country; for its subversion of its own policies concerning notification for meetings; for its
intrusion into college governing processes and into collective bargaining,
Don Sparks,
AFT Chapter President
NOT a “refusal” for the notation and updating of the seniority lists. (And it could happen that
some adjunct retirees with small pension benefits, may actually still make some money despite
the dollar for dollar reduction by STRS.)
Something for Department
Chairs and Fulltime
Classroom Faculty:
• Workblocks:
With reference to the provisions of Article 13 D 3 of our Collective Bargaining Agreement, if
classroom faculty members are assigned to be scheduled for more than 5 workblocks per week,
additional compensation is provided (this does not include extra hourly assignments).
Naturally, the administration, being fiscally prudent, would want to limit this from happening,
and consequently they ask chairs to avoid scheduling such assignments, if at all possible (while
meeting the needs of the students and the program).
However, the language in Art 13 D 4 c does permit a faculty member to make a written request to
be assigned more than 5 workblocks and waive the right to the additional load credit
(compensation) with the written concurrence of the AFT Chapter President (who happens to be
me right now). I will need to speak to any such requestors before providing my signature on the
waiver form so that I can look out for the requestor’s best interests from a Guild perspective—
that is part of the job of any Guild Chapter President. I am sorry if this is perceived as a burden
on anyone but it is what should have been occurring all along. Until recently, I had been
unaware that any waivers had even been done in any departments but it turned out that a number
were without any such notice. The contract language had been overlooked. This situation is
now remedied.
Something for Adjunct
Faculty:
• Adjunct Regional Meeting Reminder
This Saturday your Adjunct Issues Committee representatives, Kathy Holland and Amy Roberts
will conduct the meeting this Saturday, Feb 9th from 10-noon with light refreshments provided
RSVP to the Guild Website (www.aft1521.org).
• MERF:
The Guild’s Member Emergency Relief Fund (MERF) continues this Spring with applications
accepted from now until April 30. Visit the Guild Website at www.aft1521.org for details and
an online application form.
Don Sparks,
AFT Chapter President