LCC Faculty Colleagues,

Yet again, your LCCEA Bargaining Team Leads, now also including OEA consultant Kellen Wilson, met with the College to discuss ground rules. 

We are absolutely astonished and appalled that the College continues to delay bargaining in order to continue ground rules discussions of who can and cannot observe bargaining and by what means. We have exchanged 14 ground rules proposals. Fourteen. However, we do not yet have an agreement.

The College’s current proposal for Zoom observers includes only faculty with approved ADA accommodations that limit their physical attendance; faculty with legal agreements that allow them to perform job duties without being present on campus; and faculty currently residing outside of Oregon. This means that all other faculty, including faculty working in Florence, Cottage Grove, or at the Downtown campus and part-time faculty working multiple jobs could not attend unless they are able to come in person.

In addition, the College’s current proposal for in-person observers excludes LCC Board of Education members, whom they represent, and everyone else except faculty and College managers.

We have agreed to dedicate one more session to ground rules on the condition that the College add an additional real bargaining session, which they have accepted.

To summarize, we have not yet begun any negotiations of the contract as we move into a sixth session on ground rules, four of which were three hours long.  

You may be wondering why this is taking so long. We are, too. 

A glimpse into the College’s decision making reveals slow deliberation and a lack of agility. For instance, after our most recent proposal, they responded that they would be unable to respond today because they stated they didn’t have enough time to read and understand the latest changes, yet we spent an additional 20 minutes finding agreement on another date. Why not use this time to understand our proposal and respond? For our part, we have dedicated all this time to reach agreement on ground rules to help ensure that faculty can observe the negotiations of our own contract.

Our updated schedule for real bargaining sessions is as follows.

1. May 8, 1-4
2. May 22, 9-12
3. May 23, 12-2
4. May 29, 1-4
5. June 5, 1-4

Your LCCEA Bargaining Team Leads:

Gerry Meenaghan

Adrienne Mitchell

April Myler

Peggy Oberstaller

Ryan Olds

Russell Shitabata

Kellen Wilson