Adrienne Mitchel addressed the board of education during LCCEA’s negotiations for a fair faculty contract. She is the president of the LCCEA and delivered a message supporting greater funding for instruction.
Faculty union appeals to the Board of Education
The Lane Community College Education Association, the union representing faculty, has been bargaining for a new contract. Due to a long, strung out bargaining session, since July 1, teachers have been employed under old contracts with outdated terms.
The bargaining has, so far, taken months and shown little progress until now.
On Nov. 18, the LCCEA had organized a large group of more than 100 teachers and supporters to show unity in front of the Board of Education at their monthly meeting. LCC President Margaret Hamilton began the meeting by addressing the college community on why this matters.
“We really do believe in our faculty, and we are committed to working out a fair equitable and sustainable contract. We all seem to want the same outcome: a work environment that will support quality education for our students,” Hamilton said. “We are very grateful for our partnership with our unions and it is our desire to maintain those relationships because we know that if we work together we can accomplish so much more.”
Twenty-four people signed up to give the board a piece of their mind during the public input session. The speakers used a report issued by an independent analyst to prove that the instruction at the college has not been a financial priority of the administration.
Many teachers, current and former, used the audit as ammunition for their speeches to the board.
“The evidence supporting the disinvestment in instruction is clear. It’s in the research paper we will provide you tonight, it’s in the pay inequities for part-time faculty, it’s in the workload of full-time faculty, and quite frankly the continued disinvestment is in the college’s contract offer in abundance,” instructor Wendy Simmons said. “We ask you to redirect our college back to our instructional mission and to shepherd our resources wisely.”
The speaker after Simmons was John Larson, president of the Oregon Education Association. He also teaches English in the Hermiston School District. As president of the OEA he represents 44,000 educators across Oregon.
He fears instructors can not afford to spend the necessary amount of time with students in order for them to become successful.
“I used to be very proud to tell my students ‘you should go to community college,’” Larson said. “But as community colleges continue to cut full-time faculty, continue to underpay part-time faculty, I can’t tell my students that. I can’t in good conscious tell my students that.”
Larson used to work for Blue Mountain State community college and spoke on his own experiences of not being able to support himself unless he taught high school at the same time. He ended his time on the stand by showing hope for the future.
“We need your [the board] help, and we need their [faculty] help, we need to get this contract settled, we need to move forward, and we need to fund our community colleges, and we need to show the students of the state that community college IS a great step in their future career.”
Among those who spoke was former student body president Nick Keough. He was a student body president for 2018-2019 at LCC and delivered a decisive message that students will stand with the faculty.
“Our tactics can escalate,” Keough said. He mentioned that he spent most of his time in office fighting for more funding from the state. His efforts combined with many more schools across the state were reportedly successful, and yet with increased funding faculty contracts were still lacking. “What a slap in the face,” Keough said.
Following Keough was current student body president Bryant Everett.
Everett spoke on her personal experiences at LCC and the stories of her teachers who have to work three jobs to make ends meet. She closed her statement on the issues that she campaigned on a year ago. Cultural competency has always been at the top of Everett’s list.
“The LCCEA is more than willing to negotiate to make it so that those cultural competency trainings are mandatory. So I ask, from the students that put me into this office – Pay our teachers,” Everett said.
Included with all the statements given at the board meeting was a letter from Congressman Peter DeFazio.
His letter, addressed to Margaret Hamilton, concluded with “I urge you and the LCC Board of Education to offer a fair contract proposal that adequately compensates both full-time and part-time faculty.”
A week after the board meeting, LCCEA reached a tentative agreement with the administration on Nov 26.
The new contracts will include movement toward part-time pay equity. Currently, part-time pay rates are at 60.6% of full-time rates. This will grow to 65% in the next three years and 76% of the teaching portion of full-time pay.
There has also been a new minimum set number of full-time faculty at 60%. This is meant to end the loss of full-time positions that were being replaced by part-time faculty.
The negotiations also led to a modest increase in the professional development fund and an increase to the part-time coaches stipend that gets them much closer to equal pay with other part-time faculty.
The deal will also allow for reasonable salary adjustments for all faculty each year.
It is important to note that this is a tentative deal, meaning this won’t be permanent until the LCCEA and LCC’s Board of Education has voted to ratify the movement.
“Lane Community College is demonstrating through this agreement that instruction and faculty are priorities worthy of investment. Now that we have an agreement, faculty can fully focus on our important work serving students. LCCEA is deeply grateful for the support of community members, retirees, students, staff, OEA leaders, OEA members, legislators, and the Democratic Party of Lane County who stood with faculty to help ensure fair contract — one that invests in the college’s instructional mission,” LCCEA President Adrienne Mitchell said.
