Lane Community College Education Association

Bargaining Update July 27, 2020

LCC Faculty Colleagues,

The College provided the following response to the LCCEA proposal regarding working conditions for reopening without an explanation:
Coronavirus Phase1-2 WorkingConditions 7 27 20

Your LCCEA Bargaining Team finds that the College’s response meets virtually none of the baseline requirements to ensure faculty safety and other working conditions interests. It is unacceptable for numerous reasons, including:

Health and Safety

The Lane Community College Education Association (LCCEA) expresses deep sadness about the senseless killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota; Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Kentucky; Ahmaud Aubery in Brunswick, Georgia; and so many others. We stand in solidarity with those demanding swift justice and with the Black community, affirming that Black lives do matter. We are committed to advocating for the well-being of our colleagues, students, campus, and community members who are victims of racism, violence, and oppression, as well as supporting the eradication of institutional racism, inequity, and injustice in all their forms.

Your LCCEA Bargaining Team met with the College last Monday to negotiate over safety, instruction, and working conditions for reopening. Please see LCCEA proposal attached.

You will find that the LCCEA proposal prioritizes:

* Faculty and campus community safety;
* Provisions for faculty in at-risk categories for COVID-19 to work remotely;
* Accommodations for faculty with a household member in an at-risk category to elect to work remotely;
* Requiring face coverings indoors on campus and providing them to individuals who arrive on campus without one;
* Provision of PPE such as an N95 mask upon request by faculty teaching face-to-face;
* Curriculum development funding for part-time faculty teaching remote/online classes they have not previously taught remotely/online;
* Compensation for faculty who have additional teaching time required due to social distancing (e.g. lab instruction with class sections split into smaller groups);
* Provision of insurance to a group of part-time faculty teaching in Fall term who will otherwise lose insurance for three or more months this summer;
* Ensuring that faculty participate in the development of departmental safety plans for any face-to-face instruction;
* Faculty discretion in terms of choosing to teach face-to-face; and
* For remote instruction, faculty discretion in choosing synchronous, asynchronous, or a combination.

Thank you to the record number of faculty members — 342 — who participated in the recent all-faculty survey. Your LCCEA Bargaining Team developed the proposal with faculty input from the survey, as well as through a thorough review of the LCC Reopening Plan, which does not adequately meet faculty express interests for safety, nor cover all relevant working conditions.

Results from the survey include the following:
93% strongly support or support, with 85% expressing strongest support, for allowing faculty members in an at-risk category to work remotely.

More than 91% strongly support or support, with 82% expressing strongest support, for allowing faculty members with an at-risk household member to teach remotely.

89% indicate it is very important or important, with the majority choosing very important, to honor academic freedom  and provide that faculty teaching remotely make decisions about instructional methods, including whether to teach synchronously, asynchronously, or a combination.

More than 90% indicate that it’s very important or important that faculty choose whether to teach face-to-face, with the strong majority choosing very important.

In addition, faculty indicated overwhelming support for requiring a ratification vote to approve any MOA on reopening, which LCCEA is committed to provide to our members.

Likewise, faculty have indicated overwhelming solidarity and support to engage in collective action if an agreement is not reached that protects faculty safety (e.g. unified faculty job actions up to and including not returning to campus as a faculty until safety measures have been agreed and implemented).

The College has not yet responded nor indicated when they will respond. We will keep you apprised of the negotiations, and you may also hear from the LCCEA Action Team with updates and requests. In the meantime, if you are interested volunteering to stand in solidarity with your faculty colleagues for a reasonable agreement on safety and working conditions, please email lcceaaction@lanecc.edu

Your LCCEA Bargaining Team on Reopening:
Kelly Collins
Christina Howard
Adrienne Mitchell
Russell Shitabata

The WorkShare MOA requires six furlough days taken throughout the 2020-2021 academic calendars. These days include:

After factoring in the furlough days and schedule changes, when do faculty work? Contracted faculty will have six, paid non-instructional course preparation days in summer to prepare for Fall and 2020-2021 instruction. These are scheduled for the weeks of July 13 and July 20.