LCC Faculty Colleagues,

Your LCCEA Bargaining Team has been engaged in a thorough analysis of the College’s bargaining proposal.

According to our contract, this economic reopener must be limited to economics (e.g. salary, etc.) and up to three non-economic issues per party.

We see the College’s proposal as disappointing in the extreme and strongly encourage all faculty to consider the significant impact that implementation of this proposal would have not only on faculty working conditions and faculty jobs – both full-time and part-time –  but also on our collective ability to serve students and keep highly qualified, dedicated faculty at LCC. The College’s proposal appears to be an affront to all faculty and to our contract.

(In addition to the summaries below, please find at the end of this post: a chart that compares the LCCEA and College proposals along with examples of how we estimate workload would be impacted in departments across campus. After reviewing the College proposal, please complete a very brief survey to share your reaction and feedback at: https://forms.gle/ezipyhJJ4QneQ2er7 It will take just 1-2 minutes.)

The College has presented a proposal that:

• Modifies 29 articles of our contract (some with non-substantive changes);
• Includes approximately 14 distinct non-economic issues;
• Modifies or eliminates 13 MOAs;
• Provides an economic offer of 1.5% COLAs;
• Adds one paid work day for contracted faculty but no additional inservice/meeting hours for part-time faculty; and

• Pays for economics and appears to produce a net reduction in total faculty compensation and benefits expenses for the College by:
  • Extracting significant workload increases;
  • Making 45 TLCs/credits a minimum instead of a maximum for all full-time faculty (except for Advanced Technology and Aviation Maintenance which would maintain a 51 TLC requirement);
  • Making overloads mandatory for full-time faculty who do not have assignments of 45 TLCs/credits (the majority of faculty) with most full-time faculty assigned one or more additional courses;
  • Paying only part of the overload course, resulting in effective salary rates well below the 85% overload rate and below part-time salary rates;
  • Removing class sizes from the contract;
  • Removing other workload parameters and limitations (e.g. number of sections, number of preps, total number of students);
  • Increasing the number of courses the majority of full-time faculty teach;
  • Removing compensation for part-time faculty to complete required assessment activities;
  • Setting the TLC factor for lecture-lab at .762, increasing workload for contracted faculty and decreasing compensation for part-time faculty in several departments;
  • Allowing classes to be assigned up to double the “established” but no longer documented class size with stipends for large classes based on end of fourth week enrollment;
  • Displacing part-time faculty from work, resulting in substantial layoffs at a time when we have already lost 20% of our part-time faculty; and
  • Also resulting in reduced numbers of full-time faculty in future years.

Among other changes, the College also proposes:

• Removing all contract language that refers to an inflation index used to ensure salaries are not eroded by inflation over time;
• Providing an additional 0.5% COLA to part-time faculty only if PT faculty loads are increased to 0.75 FTE, resulting in job loss for approximately 12.5% or more of part-time faculty at times of enrollment decline or stagnation;
• Increasing maximum TLC/credit load for full-time faculty to 18.5 TLCs/credits per term;
• Allowing full-time faculty to teach 0.5 FTE overloads (after mandatory overloads paid effectively well below regular overload rates) before part-time faculty with seniority receive assignments during the academic year; 
• Increasing assigned workload hours for non-instructional faculty (e.g. counselors);
• Removing protections against class cancellations;
• Removing the Workload Taskforce Findings MOA (just mutually agreed less than 2 years ago after six years of joint LCC-LCCEA work);
• Removing the Assignment Rights / Assignment Order MOA; 
• Removing the Distance Learning MOA; and
• Modifying Academic Program Review to reduce the role of faculty in determining committee membership within the program as well as some faculty roles on APROC.

Your LCCEA Bargaining Team presented a proposal to meet faculty interests indicated by the All Faculty Survey with 249 participants and based on background data showing that faculty salaries have fallen behind when compared with other community colleges, local teachers, and with our hard working colleagues right here at LCC.

The LCCEA proposal:

• Provides COLAs set at actual inflation rates determined by the federal government to prevent salaries from falling further behind inflation;
• Provides pay parity for part-time faculty with a new salary schedule (part-time faculty step on to the new schedule at the next highest amount moving incrementally toward parity on the schedule with step advancement each year); 
• Adds 1.5 steps at the top of the salary schedules to partially address the gap between LCC faculty salaries and other groups on and off campus
• Restores the work year to 175 days for contracted faculty, and adds 16 hours inservice/meeting pay for part-time faculty
• Adds Juneteenth and Indigenous People’s Day as paid holidays in accordance with their recognition by the State of Oregon;
• Expands the definition of family members to be more inclusive for the purpose of paid and unpaid leave time (e.g. parental, family, and medical leave) and tuition waivers
• Provides LTD bus passes to all faculty
• Adds steps for faculty using bilingual/multilingual skills in their work;
• Includes three non-economic issues as follows:
  • Increases the lab rate to 1.0 TLC;
  • Protects job security with reasonable procedures for establishing and/or changing minimum qualifications with notice requirements when changes are made and opportunities to ensure faculty remain current in areas for which they are qualified;
  • Centers student success by:
    • Increasing support for student basic needs (e.g. food, housing, mental health, gender-neutral restrooms, campus spaces for worship and lactation)
    • Reducing costs for students (e.g. tuition waiver for undocumented and indigenous students; reducing textbook markup at the bookstore; providing support for OERs)
    • Expanding sanctuary campus protections in accordance with recommendations for institutions of higher education from the National Immigration Law Center;
    • Ensuring basics for instruction are provided (e.g. office space, adequate classroom technology, etc.); and
    • Ensuring campus resources are allocated equitably and in alignment with the college mission.

Please note: steps are provided to all faculty consistent with current contract language.

We will seek clarity from the College on which will be their three non-economic issues, given the limit of three per party and the large number included in the College proposal. We will keep all faculty updated as negotiations progress.

Fill out the Survey

Please do complete our two-minute reaction and feedback survey. You may also wish to be in contact with Action Team Chairs, Peggy Oberstaller and Wendy Simmons, about how to get involved.

Your LCCEA Bargaining Team

Kelly Collins

Joseph Colton

Adrienne Mitchell

Nancy Wood