November 4, 1996

WELCOME

We extend a warm welcome to the following new CCFT members:

• Deborah Brasket (Language Arts, PT)
• Hedy Carra (Learning Skills/DSPS, new FT faculty)
• Donna Crocker (Social Sciences, PT)
• Katherine Jimison (Physical Sciences and Math, new FT faculty)
• Keith Lilley (Library Services, FT)
• Joshua Lyman (Language Arts, PT)
• Margaret Ann Maricle (Learning Skills/DSPS, PT)
• Cherie Moore (Human Development, new FT faculty)
• Christine Murphy (Social Sciences, PT)
• Karen Waska (Learning Skills/DSPS, PT)
• James West (Language Arts, PT)

And welcome also to Dennis Baeyen, Harry Schade, and Linda Zeuschner who were part-time members and are now full-time members. Congratulations on your new positions!

The makeup of our membership is encouraging and disturbing at the same time. Of the approximately 74 regular (FT) faculty who are not eligible for longevity next year--obviously, the more recently hired and often "poorer" faculty members--approximately 52 are union members, most of them charter members. This is very impressive and heartening. However, of the 32 senior faculty who are eligible for longevity next year and benefited most from the contract, only 12 are union members. We thank these 12 faculty who put their faith--and dollars--in their union: Lee Bedell, Lonnie Belden, Barry Frantz, Dick Hitchman, George Rumore, Gary Meissner, Bob Pelfrey, Darrell Rich, Keith Lilley, Bob Hartwig, Terry Bowen, and Hugh Platt. Without a healthy union membership, we could never have produced the results that we did.

We want all faculty to know that CCFT's doors are always open. We encourage faculty to join and pay their fair share.

hortly after returning from my Spring semester sabbatical, I submitted my resignation as Vice-President of CCFT, effective the day the contract was signed. It was a difficult and unhappy decision for me, but pressing publisher deadlines and a nagging desire to cultivate my own garden made it necessary. Marilyn has asked me to use this leave-taking as an opportunity to reflect on the these early years of unionization at Cuesta. I have nothing very complicated to say about them. Only this:

I would have never been part of organizing and participating in a union that was not primarily interested in decentralizing educational authority by placing more of it in the hands of the people who know the students best and who work with them every day. I like the salary increases as much as anyone else, but they pale in comparison to the creation of spaces where administrators must deal with faculty as equals. One of my favorite philosophers wrote, "Equality does not create citizenship; citizenship creates equality." As citizens of this educational community, we have made much progress in creating equality, but we have a long way to go. (Attend a Board of Trustees meeting if you want to find out just how far.) Former vice-presidents are still citizens.

Kent Brudney

Editor's note: Speaking for the entire Executive Board, we will miss Kent's presence, his humor, knowledge, and "silver tongue" very much. Although we knew he was going to resign his VP post after the signing of the contract, we had hoped his circumstances might have changed. Nonetheless, we are pleased that he will continue to help with the education of the faculty to the contract and that he will remain on the negotiating team. So long, Kent, but not good-bye.

MR

The obvious benefit of union organizing at Cuesta College is the new contract, including improved salaries and working conditions. In addition, unionization provides other benefits which are less obvious, but no less important to the faculty's security and well-being.

One of these benefits is the faculty's access to the Public Employment Relations Board (PERB), the state agency responsible for enforcing the rights of education employees. Unionization has enabled faculty to require managers to be accountable to PERB.

CCFT's first appeal to PERB derailed management's infamous reorganization plan, saving the division chairs and saving the faculty from assistant deans. CCFT's second appeal to PERB challenged management's unilateral reclassification of the chair of counseling position. PERB recently issued a decision on this complaint.

In 1994, while CCFT was organizing the faculty, management reclassified the chair of counseling (a faculty position) to the director of counseling (a management position). CCFT argued that management's reclassification violated the law and that management was required to bargain with the union on the reclassification.

CCFT's field representative, Richard Hemann, in conjunction with CCFT's legal counsel, Robert Bezemek, filed the unfair labor practice charge with PERB. An administrative law judge from PERB conducted three days of hearings on campus. Managers were required to testify under oath and to produce, under subpoena, documents important to CCFT's case. The process may have been a sobering one for managers; it was a far cry indeed from the campus forums to which managers are accustomed.

PERB ruled that the reclassification of the chair of counseling position was a management prerogative and in itself did not violate the law. However, and very importantly, PERB also ruled that management violated two sections of the law by failing "to provide the Federation with notice of its decisions or adequate opportunity for meaningful negotiations before it unilaterally implemented the changes at issue" (p. 31, PERB decision).

PERB has imposed two orders on the District. The first order is that management cease and desist from this type of activity, now and in the future. The second order is that management post notices on campus alerting employees that the District has acted unlawfully, that it is being required by PERB to stop acting unlawfully, and that it will comply with the order.

Important gains were achieved by pursuing this case. First, the union succeeded in making managers accountable. Second, the District will have to meet its legal requirements to bargain with CCFT. Third, CCFT received excellent support from the statewide affiliate, CFT, and from the national affiliate, AFT. These affiliates combined picked up two-thirds of the cost of the PERB case. Now that the case is closed, our local will apply to the AFT for reimbursement of the remainder of the cost.

The legal support provided to our local by CFT and AFT is perhaps the most important benefit faculty receive from our affiliation with the state and national organizations. In the future that support will be crucial in implementing the new contract and improving the position of Cuesta's faculty.

Mark Weber

Editor's note: The district must have the notices posted in all faculty areas very shortly. Watch for them. They must remain in place for 30 days.

MR

following memorandum should never have taken place in any academic institution. Yet they did, and I am making this public because the district will take no action on the matter and because it has happened all too often in a certain division on the Cuesta campus.

The following memo was sent to a division director last February. Specific identifying informaIt is with mixed emotions that I write this article. Actions like those described in the tion has been changed.

"This memorandum is to challenge the improper confiscation and disposal of my personal property from a staff bulletin board and to ensure that similar violations do not occur again."

"On Wednesday, February 21, 1996 (by your recollection) you removed political cartoons and jokes that I had posted on a bulletin board just across an aisle from my office. This bulletin board has been used by [faculty of this division] for posting personal items, including political statements, for at least 3 semesters. You then threw the confiscated items away. You left on the bulletin board other items that had no political implications, such as a photograph of a gorilla and a cartoon related to teaching."

"On Monday, February 26, 1996, after noticing their removal, I asked you if you knew what had happened to the items I had posted. You told me that you had taken them down in a "cleaning frenzy" for an upcoming (state) program review. When I told you that the action was out of line, you said, "Yes, it probably was out of line." You then asserted that "off-campus political" activities should stay off campus.

"You confiscated only items that had political content, leaving non-political messages on the bulletin board. By this action, it appears that you violated Cuesta College Board Policy 3240 ("Academic Freedom") and state and federal laws1 protecting a faculty member's right of free speech. Furthermore, you disposed of someone else's personal property without their permission. I object to these violations and want to make sure that they don't become an established practice in our department or anywhere else on campus."

"It won't take much to resolve this matter. Please send me a written apology and a statement that you will not take similar action in the future. Hopefully this will be the end of this incident."

"Tinker v. Des Moines School Dist. (1969) 393 U.S. 503 and Hazelwood School Dist. v. Kuhlmeier (1987) 484 U.S. 260"

The matter was brought up during a contract negotiation session, but the district's response was that it had no merit. I was astounded at that response and can only guess that the district's legal counsel was not getting the full story. It became a matter of the faculty member's word against the director's. Hence, I am alerting all of the faculty of the incident and reminding you that freedom of speech is your right. Your rights as a citizen do not stop when you drive onto campus. This is especially important to remember during this time of year, with elections and campaigns in full swing.

I believe that faculty members have a special responsibility to exercise a certain amount of restraint in voicing their political viewpoints. This is spelled out clearly in our contract's academic freedom article.

However, actions like the ones described in the above memo are intolerable. Perhaps by publishing these facts, things like this will never happen on this campus again.

Mark Tomes

Hi. I'm Jack Sparks from Counseling, your new part-time faculty rep on the Executive Board. Right now, as a newcomer to the Board, I'm still learning the ropes. Soon, though, part-timers will be having a meeting to discuss and clarify the sections of the new contract that concern us. If you can't come yourself, the reps in your department or division should be able to answer many of your questions. Be sure to contact them.

After that, we'll be looking toward the next contract and formulating any reopeners or additional changes we would like to propose to the negotiating team and the Exec Board. We also need to think about some long-term goals, such as pro-rata pay. I trust you will work with me to assure that I am really voicing your concerns and defending your interests on the Executive Board. Make your department or division reps aware of your concerns. They in turn will communicate with me.

I also urge those part-timers who aren't yet members of CCFT to become part of the family. As we have seen, when people work together, they make positive changes.

Please contact me at x3960/3182. I will try to answer your questions.

Jack Sparks

I periodically am asked, "Where do my dues go?" This article will try to answer that question in a general manner. If you have any specific questions that are not addressed here, feel free to contact me in DSPS or at extension 2223.

Nearly all of CCFT's expenses are paid from members' dues. (For a specific breakdown of our income and expenses, refer to the budget report I recently sent to members.)

Expenses can be broken down into two categories: expenses that are considered "dues" to our state and national affiliates (which we have no control over) and local expenses . The former are paid each month and include dues to CFT, AFT, the state AFL-CIO, the Tri-Counties Central Labor Council (our local AFL-CIO branch), and AFT occupational liability insurance (to protect each CCFT member). The latter, our local expenses, we pay as we need to; these include copies, postage, supplies (printer paper, ink cartridges, etc.), attorney expenses, travel and conference expenses, etc.

The following shows the amounts and percentages of the dues we owe to our affiliates each month for a full-time CCFT faculty member.

Sample salary of full-time CCFT member: $48,640 (per year)

Monthly dues: $48.64
to AFT:	9.10	18.7 %
to CFT:	19.15	39.4
to CA AFL-CIO:	.35	.7
to TCCLC:	.20	.4
for occup. liability. insur:	1.00	2.0
Total:	29.80	61.2
Left over for CCFT:	18.84	38.8

The following shows a similar breakdown for a part-time CCFT faculty member.

Sample salary of part-time CCFT member: $5,863 (per semester)

Monthly dues:$17.59
to AFT:	2.275	12.9 %
to CFT:	2.39	13.6
to CA AFL-CIO:	.35	2.0
to TCCLC:	.20	1.1
for occup. liability. insur:	1.00	5.7
Total:	6.215	35.3
Left over for CCFT:	11.375	64.7

.Currently, about 64% of our dues income goes to our affiliates and other related costs. Our affiliates use their income for legal defense funds (grants to locals to help pay for legal costs associated with grievances and court cases, of which we have been the beneficiary), printing of newsletters, convention costs, administrative costs, etc.

A very small part of a member's dues (about 25 cents per month per member) goes to the national AFL-CIO. For those of you who wonder how much is going to the AFL-CIO Political Education campaign for or against a particular candidate (you have probably seen the ads on TV), it is less than one-hundredth of a penny of your monthly dues.

"What happens to the rest of my dues?" About 36% stays with our local to spend as we (the Executive Board and membership) decide.

The following shows our other 96/97 budget item amounts and percentages of the budget for each item (those that are not related to the affiliates since I addressed them above). These figures come from the CCFT 96/97 budget.

Attorney's fees/Legal defense:	5,250	12.7 %
Copying costs:	580	1.4
Equipment/Supplies:	1,215	2.9
20% reassigned time (VP):	2,500	6.0
Membership drive:	462	1.1
Phone/Postage/Stipends:	600	1.5
Travel/Conference:	2,300	5.6
Union liability insurance:	500	1.2
Miscellaneous:	1612	3.9
Total:	15019	36.3

The CCFT Executive Board practices frugal living. For example, we use Cuesta's Reprographics department instead of Kinko's whenever we can, attend a minimum of conferences (usually one or two per year), and save about $1200 per year by having an attorney on retainer.

A large portion of our expenses this year will go to establishing our own legal defense fund. We hope to increase this reserve each year "just in case" CCFT needs to take legal action on behalf of a faculty member. Another large portion may be used to purchase reassigned time for the new VP who will work on educating the faculty on the new contract and be responsible for a membership drive.

I hope this helps to answer that question, "Where do my dues go?" Feel free to let me know if you have any other questions or comments.

Mark Tomes

Editor: Marilyn Rossa

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