LCC Faculty Colleagues,

Your LCCEA Bargaining Team met with College representatives on Friday. Please see attached summary comparison of proposals.

The College made an updated proposal including the following:
* Full-time faculty step “freeze” this year with 1/2 steps July 1 and Jan 1 for each of the next two years
* FT faculty COLAs of 1%, 1.25%, and 1.5% for the three years
* PT faculty COLAs of 1.5%, 2.0%, 2.5% for the three years
* Elimination of Sec 125 in 2021
* Elimination of faculty access to health clinic
* Add 1/2 steps at the top in 2021 for both PT and FT
* 1 additional paid contract day for contracted faculty but only 4 additional hours of inservice pay for part-time faculty
* Restructuring of part-time faculty coaches stipends based on a formula
* Equitable treatment of part-time flight tech faculty on college closure days

While the College’s proposal represents some movement, especially for part-time coaches who have salaries below the regular part-time faculty salary schedule, the total amount dedicated to faculty compensation would still fall considerably below the total average amounts from the last ten years, including years when the college faced significant budget deficits. According to the college’s own calculation methods, the total cost for the three years would be roughly 2/3 of the average amount calculated for faculty compensation increases.

Remaining challenges include:
• The college offer will not make a significant shift in reversing the trends that have resulted in college disinvestment in the instructional mission (with current investment in instruction at only 35.4% of operating expenditures for FY18, the most recent year’s data).
• Full-time faculty who are step eligible this year would receive disparate treatment and suffer lost wages for the rest of their careers under the college’s proposal. The college did mention the possibility of making a one time payment that would remedy disparate treatment of full-time faculty who were placed on the salary schedule under the old placement system which would mitigate this impact, but the permanent loss of a step in future years would affect step-eligible faculty every year with reduced salaries.
• The College’s proposal does move slightly to improve part-time faculty compensation but would still leave PT faculty at only 61.9% of FT salaries after three years (an increase of 1.6% from 60.6%) with part-time faculty on steps 1- 6.5 with annual salaries still less than $20,000 at half time, and part-time faculty on steps 1-9 (on 15 step schedule) still eligible for food stamps with a family of two.
• The college offer to have a minimum of 209 full-time faculty positions by year three is still 10 positions less than college actual expenditures for full-time faculty FTE last year. (The College reported to the Board of Education in October spending the equivalent of 17 full-time positions in temporary faculty contracts and faculty overloads to meet student demand when there was a dearth of available instructors in certain disciplines last year. Due to the unplanned addition of so many temporary contracts and overloads, the College expenses for full-time faculty amounted to 219.4 FTE even though there were far fewer permanent full-time faculty last year. The money is there for full-time positions as is the demonstrated need. The College budgeted $1.3M for new contracted faculty positions this year, but full-time faculty numbers remain lower this year than last and that funding remains unused. The College continues to replace most vacant contracted faculty positions with new part-time faculty hires, hiring 40 new part-time faculty in the past year.)

The Action Team is hosting a dinner on Monday at 5 in the cafeteria where faculty will be joined by OEA leaders, community members, students, staff, and retirees for a brief rally at 5:30 p.m. before the Board meeting. All faculty are cordially invited to attend the event and following Board of Education meeting at 6 p.m.

Please see attached letter of support from U.S. Congressman Peter DeFazio. LCCEA has also received notice of support for a fair faculty contract from OR state Representative Marty Wilde, and OR state Senators Beyer and Prozanski.
Your LCCEA Bargaining Team: Kelly Collins Adrienne Mitchell Russell Shitabata Nancy Wood