Mediation Update: Tentative Agreement Reached!

LCC Faculty Colleagues –

We reached an agreement on a new four-year contract with economics set for all four years!

Highlights Include the following.

Salary

  • COLAs of 3.0% in years one (with retro pay back to last July) and 3.0% in year two; 3.1% in year three and 3.1% in year four
  • Steps each year for all step-eligible faculty
  • Additional longevity step of 1.5% added at the top of all faculty salary schedules on July 1, 2026
  • Additional 1.0% pay parity adjustments each year for four years for all PT faculty, including Flight Tech and coaches

For full-time faculty who are step-eligible all four years, salary will increase by approximately 30.7% by the 28-29 year. 

For full-time faculty who are at the top of the salary schedule, salary will increase by approximately 14.5% by the 28-29 year. 

For part-time faculty who are step-eligible all four years, salary will increase by approximately 36% by the 28-29 year. 

For part-time faculty who are at the top of the salary schedule, salary will increase by approximately 19.2% by the 28-29 year.

Workload

  • Increased Lab rate from 0.682 to 0.75, reducing workload for FT faculty and increasing pay for PT faculty by 10%
  • Increase Lec-Lab rate from 0.762 to 0.788
  • Increase Lec-Lab for Advanced Tech from 0.788 to 0.8
  • Class size maximums set in contract

Non-Economics 

  • Strong job security protections
  • Expanded non-discrimination clause
  • Updated language on privacy rights, academic freedom
  • New safety language and benefits
  • Protection for faculty currently living out of Oregon through 2029
  • Expanded union release time for Association work
  • Increased part-time annual round-up to 0.75 FTE

While there are many wins, our overall agreement does include some concessions and lacks some goals we were striving to achieve. On balance, we think it is not only reasonable and fair, but a strong, solid contract that meets faculty members’ top priorities for job security, compensation, workload, stability, and more.

Question and Answer Sessions

Please see summary below and all tentative agreements for more details and join a Q & A session.

Friday, February 27, 1-2 p.m., location TBD

Monday, March 2, 5-6 p.m., Zoom

Tuesday, March 3, 2-3 p.m., location TBD

In addition, all LCCEA members will have the opportunity to vote to ratify the agreement. More details soon.

We are heartened by the extraordinary efforts of our action team and support of union members. 96+% signed strike pledges, and hundreds of faculty, students, and community members participated in organizing activities during this campaign, which absolutely made a huge impact on our success!

Faculty have never been more unified, and our collective future is bright!

Your LCCEA Bargaining Team Leads,

Adrienne Mitchell

April Myler

Gerry Meenaghan

Peggy Oberstaller

Russell Shitabata

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Mediation Update: Progress & More Mediation in the Morning

We are wrapping up after a late night and will provide more updates as soon as possible tomorrow. We have had generally productive discussions and progress today and begin mediation again at 9 a.m. tomorrow (Wednesday). 

We are heartened to learn from the Action Team that the strike pledges are up to 95%! Your support is critical and impactful!

More as soon as we can.

Your LCCEA Bargaining Leads,

Gerry

April 

Peggy

Russell

Adrienne

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Settlement or Impasse? We don’t know

LCC Faculty Colleagues –

We are writing to share more information about the status of negotiations. 

As your bargaining team, we believe it is critical for you to know that the issues that matter most to faculty remain unresolved or completely unaddressed by the Administration. 

These include:

  • Job security for both part-time and full-time faculty
  • Compensation
  • Workload, including TLCs for labs and lecture-labs
  • Class sizes
  • Contract length, stability, and clarity
  • Faculty Professional Development decision-making and funding
  • Safety

During twelve hours of mediation yesterday, we provided two complete package options at the beginning that would have fully resolved the contract negotiations. After reaching a pair of individual TAs early in the morning, the Administration spent five and a half hours deliberating, ultimately making very few proposals, no comprehensive response, and failing to address faculty key priorities. We did reach two additional TAs in the late evening; however, the four agreements (i.e., privacy, work year and inservice hours, governance, and online evaluations) represent minimal changes or reverting to pre-existing contract language. (While we attached the TAs, we cannot provide the mediation proposals due to the confidentiality agreement in mediation.)

We remain strongly committed to reaching an agreement in mediation, but we want faculty to be prepared in case that is not possible. 

At this point in time, we strongly advise faculty to continue preparing in the event we cannot reach agreement in mediation. Due to timelines in state law, either party may declare impasse as soon as March 6 if no agreement is reached. 

Steps we recommend you take now:

  1. Learn more about unemployment for striking workers in this toolkit, and take the first step by registering for a Francis Online account: https://frances.oregon.gov/Claimant/ (This step should be completed weeks in advance, so we recommend doing this now. This step does not mean that you are applying for unemployment now, but it is necessary to do this in advance before you can file in the future.)
  2. Participate in calls to action from the Action Team
  3. Write letters to the Board of Ed encouraging them to resolve a fair contract without further delay.

92+% of LCCEA faculty have signed strike pledges thus far. If you have not yet signed and wish to do so, please contact your department rep or LCCEA Action Team Chair, Wendy Simmons. If you are not yet an LCCEA member or are unsure of your membership status, please contact LCCEA Membership Chair, Aryn Bartley. OEA Strike funds are only available to union members.

Thank you to all for your engagement in strike schools, pledges, info pickets, rallies, and to the faculty volunteers who cheered us on as we began mediation yesterday.  

We are stronger together! Our solidarity and resolve will carry us through.

Your LCCEA Bargaining Team Leads,

Adrienne Mitchell

April Myler

Gerry Meenaghan

Peggy Oberstaller

Russell Shitabata

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Mediation Update: Very Slow, Limited Progress

LCC Faculty Colleagues —

Your Bargaining Team met for nearly 12 hours with the College today. We did reach four tentative agreements (attached) on:

Art. 9 — Work year, inservice hours, and inservice schedule with one new paid leave day for religious observance

Art. 13 — Incorporating distance learning language into the evaluations article

Art. 16 — Updated privacy language

Art. X — Governance — confirming pre-existing governance provisions, including reassignment time

We will provide more updates as mediation continues. We may have mediation again next Tuesday, and do have mediation confirmed next Wednesday.

Your LCCEA Bargaining Leads,

Adrienne Mitchell

April Myler

Gerry Meenaghan

Peggy Oberstaller

Russell Shitabata

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Bargaining Update: Three new agreements!

LCC Faculty Colleagues –

We had a productive bargaining session with the College and reached three new agreements.

  1. Insurance –

Moda Plan 1, Delta Dental 1, and Opal Vision will continue to be the “base plan” for College contributions. If these plans are no longer available in the future, the most comprehensive option available will become the base plan. Current insurance language protections for all faculty remain intact, including expansion of part-time faculty family insurance that had been agreed upon in the SB 551 and HB2611 MOAs. In addition, HSAs will be an option faculty may choose with College contributions to the HSA plan. We did ultimately accept the College’s proposal to remove reference to the Student (medical) Health Clinic, which is a permissive topic of bargaining, meaning we couldn’t refuse to accept the article contingent upon the inclusion of that sentence. Removal of this language has no bearing on the future viability of the clinic. To clarify, this is unrelated to the Mental Health and Wellness Center, which is a separate entity. (See Art. 33 attached.)

  1. Budget Exigency – 

We agreed to exceedingly strong protections for faculty that limit reopening the contract in the event of budget exigency, which could only occur if state funding and property tax revenue combined drop 5% or more. The new Art. 6 would limit negotiations in this case to unpaid furlough days for contracted faculty and reduced inservice hours for part-time faculty only. No other economic terms, including insurance, could be included in the negotiation. (See Art. 6 attached.)

  1. Transition to Canvas as the new LMS – 

Migrated course shells will be available in Canvas for faculty by April 29, and faculty will have up to 6 hours during Spring Conference for training and/or class prep with Canvas. Faculty will have 12 hours during Fall inservice for training and/or class prep with Canvas. For the Spring and Fall inservice time dedicated to Canvas training/ class prep, contracted faculty will be compensated as per normal pay for the days, and part-time faculty may use inservice hours for compensation. Both Canvas and Moodle will be available for faculty use in Summer 2026. Canvas will go into effect as the college-supported Learning Management System for all courses in Fall 2026. Faculty serving on the “Migration Committee” will be paid for 12 hours at their regular hourly rate. (See LMS MOA attached.)

We are heartened by the extraordinary response of union members; 91+% (and counting) have signed strike pledges, which did make an impact on our progress in negotiations today. 

While we have numerous critical faculty needs yet to address, including job security, workload, class sizes, compensation, and more, we are optimistic as we move forward into mediation, which is scheduled to begin next Thursday, February 19th.

Thank you to all for your engagement in strike schools, info pickets, rallies, and to the many faculty who came to observe bargaining today and to the Action Team, Department Reps, and student supporters!

Your LCCEA Bargaining Team Leads,

Adrienne Mitchell

April Myler

Gerry Meenaghan

Michael Marchman

Peggy Oberstaller

Russell Shitabata

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