Representative Julie Fahey sent a letter of support for LCC faculty to Marge Hamilton and the Board. Read her letter by clicking below:
Bargaining Update 11.15.19
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
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Congressman Peter DeFazio Writes Letter of Support for Pay Equity
U.S. Congressman Peter DeFazio wrote LCC President Hamilton urging her and the Lane Community College Board of Education to offer a fair contract proposal that adequately compensates both full-time and part-time faculty. He notes that “LCC depends on the strong commitment of all faculty to teaching” and that “faculty are essential to the institutional success of LCC.”
LCCEA deeply appreciates the support of the Congressman and the recognition of the essential role of faculty in the fulfillment of the Lane Community College mission. The faculty call on LCC to adequately fund instruction and to invest in all faculty.
“LCC depends on the strong commitment of all faculty to teaching”
“…faculty are essential to the institutional success of LCC.”
U.S. Congressman Peter DeFazio
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Posted in Action Team, General, News and Updates
Tagged Pay Equity, Peter DeFazio, Redsupport
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Attend the upcoming board meeting!!
LCC Faculty Colleagues,
We’ve just been notified of this time change. Join us this Monday, November 18, for the board meeting from 6:00 – 7:00 p.m. and wear red. For a free meal before the meeting, come to the cafeteria at 5:00 p.m. We will walk over to the board meeting together at 5:45 p.m.
The top 10 reasons to attend the board meeting are to:
10. Support the hard work of your Bargaining Team – Kelly Collins, Adrienne Mitchell, Russell Shitabata and Nancy Wood.
9. Get a free meal from Cafe’ Yumm before the meeting.
8. Show off your red t-shirts/outfits. There will be a prize for the best “dressed in red.”
7. Stand with a record number of faculty, classified staff and community members in packing the Board room.
6. Socialize with your colleagues and solve all the world’s other problems.
5. Take a break from the NFL because the football game will be a blow out anyway.
4. Celebrate National Vichyssoise Day!
3. Have a really good reason to hit the pause button on your grading.
2. Support pay equity for part-time faculty.
1. Observe the look on the faces of the Board Members when they receive special gifts.
Also, if you haven’t yet, please take a few moments to send a letter to the Board/President Hamilton. Here’s the link https://actionnetwork.org/letters/send-a-fair-faculty-contract-message-to-the-lcc-board
You will be asked to enter your email address, name, and address, but you can simply use 4000 E 30th Ave for the address (LCC’s address) if you would like.
You will have the option to send a pre-written message, and it only takes literally seconds to send, OR you can edit the subject line and message by clicking in the fields and typing a message.
In appreciation and solidarity,
Wendy Simmons & Lee Imonen, LCCEA Action Team Co-Chairs
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Update for Faculty 3.18.19
18 October 2019
Dear Colleagues,
I’m writing with a quick update from Wednesday’s tremendous action at the Board meeting. About 65 faculty members attended — filling the Boardroom seats, aisle, and spilling into the hallway. Faculty members delivered the life-sized “Fair Contract Now” letter to the Board and College Administration with more than 120 faculty signatures. (We lost count! Photos below.)
Fourteen faculty members spoke sharing compelling stories of hardships faced by part-time faculty, the impact of large class sizes on student success and retention, the disparities and inequities of the two-tiered faculty system, the continued decrease in full-time positions at LCC, the College’s (still incomplete) contractual obligation to document workload, the numerous financial sacrifices made by faculty over recent years, the problems of the college’s proposals such as undermining part-time seniority, and the reasonableness of the faculty proposal.
The Wednesday evening action was inspiring and moving and an excellent step toward ensuring that the Board and Administration hear this important faculty message.
Over several years, the College has effectively disinvested in the mission by dedicating a decreasing proportion of operating expenditures to instruction from 40.0% in FY16 to 37.2% in FY17, and 35.1% in FY18, well below the national average of 41.6% for public community colleges.
Your LCCEA proposals in bargaining help shift the college to begin to reinvest in faculty, in instruction, and back toward the central mission of Lane Community College, underscoring the critical importance of this bargain for the overall health of the institution and, ultimately, for students we serve.
Standing together, we are making an impact. At the end of the meeting, Board members called for an Executive Session to discuss collective bargaining and address questions stemming from the testimony provided by faculty, and there has been renewed attention to our proposals and bargaining by the administration.
Thank you to all who came, to all who spoke, to all who shared your stories so that they could be read publicly, and to our amazing Action Team Chairs, Wendy Simmons and Lee Imonen. And thank you to the dozens of faculty who sent messages of support even though you were teaching or away from campus and could not attend.
The next bargaining session is scheduled for October 28, and we expect a reasonable proposal from the College at that time.
In the meantime, LCCEA will conduct a survey of all faculty, which will be more focused than our most recent bargaining survey. Please keep an eye out for the survey next week. As always, the faculty goals and interests guide the Bargaining Team, so your input is important. The Action Team, Department reps, and Action reps will continue to organize and share ways for you to get involved.
My best,
Adrienne
p.s. If you have any photos from the event or photos of yourself in red, please send them to lcceaaction@lanecc.edu 
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