Table of Contents
Happy Thanksgiving!!
We want to wish you all a Happy Holiday weekend, full of family, friends and cheer! Because this week will be so short we will not be composing a message for Monday Nov. 26th. Look for our next weekly message on Monday Dec. 3rd.
AFT Winter School
Interested in becoming more involved in your Union? AFT Winter School is a great way to learn. We are very interested in sending members who think they would like to run for an Officer position or become more involved in organizing. See more information here
Flexible Spending Account (FSA) Open Enrollment
Are you aware that if you have medical expenses, use of the FSA benefit is one way to give yourself a raise? You benefit by paying less taxes on the amount you choose to contribute to the account and the college contributes on your behalf as well. The college contribution is significant, $670.00 for employee only, $1340.00 for employee plus 1 and $1715.00 for full family. You then get to draw from this account to pay for your co-pays, deductibles, and many other medical expenses. Open enrollment is happening now and ends November 26, 2018. For more information https://www.lanecc.edu/hr/benefits/section-125
Employee Giving Campaign
The Lane Foundation and United Way campaigns are currently underway. Please consider giving to these valuable efforts! You can designate your contribution to directly support a program or initiative on campus through the Lane Foundation or in the community through the United Way.
Union Benefits – Discounts on almost everything
And I mean, almost everything. Movies, oil changes, travel, hotels, flights, rental cars, Costco, mattresses, theme park tickets, solar power, braces for your teeth, restaurants, clothes, computers, tires, TJ Maxx, gaming systems… You name it, you can save some money for being a union member! https://unionplus.abenity.com/perks/
AFT Oregon is seeking help to form a Housing Co-Op
At the 2018 AFT-Oregon Convention, a resolution was passed that directed our organization to set aside money to help fund a housing cooperative. Since this is something new for AFT-Oregon, the Executive Council has formed an Ad-Hoc Committee to look into how to accomplish this. Our first step is to recruit union activists that are passionate about affordable housing and bring them together to figure out a direction.
I’m (Devin Hunter, Union President, Hillsboro Classified United – AFT Local 4671) currently serving as the interim chair until we can schedule our first meeting where participants would vote to select a committee chair. This meeting would be via Google Hangout or some other teleconference system. After that initial meeting, I would expect the committee to follow this general plan:
- Schedule future meetings
- Gather information on how a housing cooperative would work. Requesting legal opinion through AFT-Oregon as needed.
- Identify potential community partners
- Determine costs to AFT-Oregon: financial and time commitments.
- Develop a proposal to submit to the Executive Council to authorize expenditure.
- Respond to EC action.
To help, or to get further information, please contact Devin directly: president@hcu4671.org
Many hands make light work! Upcoming and Current Work. We could REALLY use your help!
Bargaining in Spring 2019 We are looking for members interested in helping us research information and also to create surveys then assess the survey information. For more information contact your officer of choice.
The Constitution and ByLaws rewrite If this is of interest to you please contact Kyle Schmidt (schmidtk@lanecc.edu)
LCCEF Contract Committee: Putting together a knowledge base with Q&A regarding our contract. To help, contact Matt.
Member Organizer Institute – This is a PAID TRAINING OPPORTUNITY! Updated info here. Don’t hesitate! There will be opportunities for new people each term.
Officers in Training – The Executive Council (EC) is looking for members interested in shadowing EC Officers in our Officer in Training program. Think of it as a way to try before you buy! If you would like to participate, contact your officer of choice.
Classified Workload Survey
So far we’ve had one or two responses from many departments including FMP, International Programs, Health Professions, CE, CAR, and ABSE just to name a few. Great job to those employees who have found the time to fill it out but they need your support! Our intent is to have a clear understanding of staffing and workload in each department across campus so that we can advocate for the departments and areas in most need. We will be circulating a paper copy in the coming week, so, if you would like to fill one out, but computers just aren’t your thing, let any of the officers know and we’ll drop one by. If computers are your thing, please take a few minutes to fill out this survey. The more data we have, the more we can help.
Budget Development Subcommittee (BDS) of College Council
We have met twice and will attempt to meet weekly though that will be challenging until after the first of the year. So far we have discussed the proposed timeline for our work and decided to schedule a budget orientation to help new members and to refresh returning members. Your classified representatives on this committee are Pat Griffin and Robin Geyer.
Our union by the numbers
Membership
646 Total classified / 350 members (~54.2%) / 296 (~45.8%) Non-members (As of 10/22/2018)
Officers
9 officer positions filled / 1 position on temporary hiatus (COPE Chair)
Labor Management 36 active cases including 6 multiple member/group issues. 61 resolved since Jan 1, 2018
Currently 1 formal complaint and 1 grievance.
Helped place 13 members in new positions with 1 more in process.
Worksite Leaders: Interested in being more involved in your union? Be a worksite leader and share information with your colleagues, educate new employees, participate in workgroups to build and analyze surveys, help with bargaining… Help with all, or pick and choose. Your level of participation is up to you! If you have any questions contact your membership chair, Rosa Maria (membership@lccef.org).
And Last But Not Least
We would like to move away from using the Classified Staff email address through Groupwise for these weekly communications updates. Just go to lccef.org and look to the right side of the home page. You’ll see something that looks like the image. So far, 87 have signed up! If you have tried, but did not receive a confirmation email, please let me know at communications@lccef.org.