We met with the College this morning to discuss our bargaining ground rules and the College’s initial proposal. Our meeting was scheduled on short notice (just yesterday) and we apologize if some members did not receive notification. Our future bargaining sessions are being scheduled further in advance, and we will make sure the invites are sent widely and early.
We wanted to give a little information about meeting structure going forward since there was some confusion this morning.
- During the main portion of the bargaining session, members are encouraged to attend (with cameras on or off); microphones will need to stay muted.
- We encourage members to wear LCCEF shirts, LCCEF masks, and/or use an LCCEF background, as, in the past, members sat in the room making a physical presence, often wearing LCCEF shirts.
- Directly following bargaining, the LCCEF Bargaining Team will step out for a quick caucus (which we confusingly called a debrief this morning).
- During our caucus, a member of the Contract Action Team (CAT) will stay with members for questions and discussion.
- If time allows, members of the Bargaining Team will return post-caucus and join the discussion with members.
- Please note: Management has asked that observers not attend bargaining sessions during paid work time. Please arrange with your manager to flex work time or use leave to attend.
The session went very well and ended up being somewhat short.
- Ground rules were presented and accepted (PDF at the bottom of the post).
- We asked the College for more details about who would be affected by the language in their “plus one” item (which is about externally-funded positions). They will look at tightening the language in that section to clarify that the change would only affect Bond positions.
- We presented our partial proposal (we are still finalizing the language of our “plus one” item which will be presented at our next meeting).
- We agreed to meet for bargaining sessions every two weeks and are finalizing those dates. We will let you know as soon as we have that schedule.
Our first proposal is included as a PDF at the bottom of this post and a general overview of our reasoning for each item is listed below:
- We proposed one and a half steps each year to equal three steps total for all bargaining unit members in order to achieve better equity with faculty.
- We proposed adjusting the salary schedule (removing one bottom step per year, to equal two total steps over the contract, and adding one top step per year, to equal two new top steps) and bumping up employees on the top step in order to better align with local pay scales and to support those employees who would otherwise not be eligible to receive step increases. This will allow every employee to receive a step increase of at least one step if the step adjustments are made.
- We proposed a change to the second-year Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) that would align it with the future Western Region Consumer Price Index (CPI). Since that value is currently unknown, we presented the second year COLA as a range rather than a set percentage.
- We proposed the addition of range 18 to the Classified Salary Schedule to allow for increased compensation and recognition for top-step employees who receive a lead designation.
- We are currently working on the language for our plus one and will add it to our proposal and submit it by the next bargaining meeting with the College, tentatively the week of June 21st, 2021.
Please use the comments section to ask any questions or let us know what you are thinking and someone from the bargaining team, CAT, or EC will respond. It sometimes takes a little bit for comments to show as they have to be manually approved, but please know we approve all comments unless they are spam.