Important Bargaining Update for All Faculty

Posted on June 2, 2025 by LCCEA

LCC Faculty Colleagues –

Your LCCEA Bargaining Leads have further analyzed the Administration’s proposal and find it troubling in the extreme.

The Administration’s proposal would produce a net reduction in College spending on total faculty compensation and benefits by reducing healthcare benefits and extracting significant workload increases as follows.

  • Making 45 TLCs/credits a minimum instead of a maximum for all full-time faculty (except for Advanced Technology, Culinary, 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 and other workload parameters from the contract;
  • 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 .700, significantly increasing workload for contracted faculty and decreasing compensation for part-time faculty for all courses with lecture-lab; and
  • Allowing classes to be assigned up to 150% of the “established” (but unspecified) class size with stipends for large classes based on the end of fourth week enrollment.

At the same time, the Administration’s proposal seeks changes to allow layoffs with only 60 calendar days notice such that a faculty member could find out on July 15 that their job was permanently eliminated beginning in Fall term, convert laid off contracted faculty positions to part-time positions, assign faculty to any three terms of the year, reduce FPD funding, eliminate the minimum number of contracted faculty positions, and numerous other major rollbacks.

Please see below side-by-side comparison of the proposals from the Administration and LCCEA.

In addition, please see the below “workload impacts” file to understand more about how the Administration’s proposal would affect your workload.

Bargaining Team leads will share additional information at the union meeting today, June 2 at 3:15 p.m. in CEN 402 and on Zoom , and Action Team members will share next steps.

All bargaining sessions are scheduled in building 2, room 214. Upcoming dates are as follows. 

  1. June 5, 1-4
  2. June 26, 1-4
  3. Sept 11, 1-4
  4. Sept 30, 1-4

We look forward to seeing you soon.

Your LCCEA Bargaining Team Leads,

Gerry Meenaghan

Adrienne Mitchell

April Myler

Peggy Oberstaller

Ryan Olds

Russell Shitabata

Kellen Wilson

ProposalComparison06052025 (1)Download
WorkloadImpactsFromCollegeProposal.xlsxDownload
Posted in General | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Bargaining Update: College Seeking Significant Rollbacks

Posted on May 30, 2025 by LCCEA

LCC Faculty Colleagues –

Your LCCEA Bargaining Leads met with the Administration for bargaining again today. We got a late start about 35 minutes after 1 p.m. because the College was printing their proposals. We exchanged proposals that are the final set of initial proposals, including economics.

We presented Part D of our initial package proposal (below), which includes proposals on: economics such as COLAs, steps, insurance, pay parity, workload, and more.

Our LCCEA faculty proposal includes:

  • COLAs of 6.1% for the first year and inflation-indexed COLAS each year thereafter;
  • Full steps for all step-eligible faculty, plus new steps added at the top of all salary schedules; 
  • A new part-time salary schedule with pay parity defined as 85% of contracted salary rates;
  • Increased paid time, including ½ day additional class prep time, plus 4 additional hours of inservice pay for PT faculty, payout of unused personal days, and paid prep time for subs; 
  • Improved initial salary schedule placement starting at no lower than step 3; 
  • Workload relief, limiting annual TLCs to 40 for all faculty, increasing the TLC factor for lab and lecture-lab to 1.0; limiting class sizes to 30 for lecture classes and 24 for lab;
  • Added option for part-time faculty to use up to 10 inservice hours for class prep;
  • Addition of two floating holidays for religious and cultural observance;
  • Updated language providing parity and equity for part-time flight tech faculty;
  • Increased paid time for part-time head coaches; 
  • A safe and sewage-free, pest-free union office space; and
  • Updates to the contract to comply with recent legal changes.

We shared another presentation with data from our All faculty surveys as well as compelling comparative data on salaries, inflation, and living wage standards to underscore our proposals. We also provided a proposal to address impacts to Cooperative Education resulting from subcontracting efforts. In addition, we presented a demand to bargain over the elimination of the LPN (i.e. licensed practical nurse) program that we learned about last night. Any new changes that affect faculty working conditions such as these two unanticipated changes may result in additional demands to bargain.

Please see the summary of the LCCEA proposals below.

The College’s proposal (below) included:

  • 1.3% COLAs for all faculty for each of the next two years (with no retro pay if the contract is settled after July 1);
  • Limiting the insurance options to Moda Plan 5 and Kaiser Plan 2 – both substantially lower benefits than the current “base” plan 1 – but with a “Health Reimbursement Account overlay” that would save the College money;
  • Deleting all of the Workload Article and Workload Taskforce MOA in the contract;
  • Increasing workload for all faculty by removing class size maximums, requiring 45 TLCs per year and up to 18.5 TLCs per term, except for Advanced Tech, which would require 51 TLCs per year, maintaining the 0.682 TLC lab rate, allowing excessively large class sizes up to 150% of the “established” but unspecified class size, which could, for example, require any class with 30 students to allow 45 students instead; 
  • Removing non-instructional faculty members’ choice in their college committee service work; 
  • Making significant changes to Faculty Professional Development, requiring approval of the Vice President of Academic Affairs for all FPD activities, including conferences and sabbaticals. The College’s attorney explained, “this is a transition of the college taking back the approval and granting of these funds.”
  • Keeping the curriculum development rate set at $32.50;
  • Requiring LCCEA to pay for release for union activities such as bargaining that the state law requires the College to provide; and
  • Limiting faculty rights in the grievance procedure by, for example, narrowing the timeline when faculty can address concerns based on when they “should have known” an error occurred such as incorrect pay.

Thank you to the many faculty who attended today’s session to observe in person and on Zoom. All faculty are welcome to attend.

The Bargaining Team will further analyze the College’s proposals and share additional information at the union meeting on Monday, June 2 at 2 p.m. in CEN 402 and Zoom. 

All bargaining sessions are scheduled in building 2, room 214. Upcoming dates are as follows. 

  1. June 5, 1-4
  2. June 26, 1-4
  3. Sept 11, 1-4
  4. Sept 30, 1-4

We look forward to seeing you soon.

Your LCCEA Bargaining Team Leads,

Gerry Meenaghan

Adrienne Mitchell

April Myler

Peggy Oberstaller

Ryan Olds

Russell Shitabata

Kellen Wilson

LCCEAProposalSummaryInitial2025Download
ARTICLE 9 LCCEAProposal_05292025Download
ARTICLE 11 ARTICLE 31 LCCEA_AssociationMatters_05292025Download
ARTICLE 21_LCCEA05292025Download
ARTICLE 23_LCCEACD rate_05292025Download
ARTICLE 26_LCCEA_05292025Download
ARTICLE 27_LCCEA_05292025Download
ARTICLE 32_LCCEA_05292025Download
Article 33_LCCEA_05292025Download
Article 48 LCCEA Proposal Co-op 05292025Download
CBAUpdatesMOAsNoWaivers_LCCEA_05292025Download
2025.05.29 – LCC’s Proposal re Art. 11Download
2025.05.29 – LCC’s Proposal re Art. 23Download
2025.05.29 – LCC’s Proposal re Art. 26Download
2025.05.29 – LCC’s Proposal re Art. 33Download
2025.05.29 – LCC’s Proposal re Art. 34Download
2025.05.29 – LCC’s Proposal re Art. 35, 4937-2989-0120, 1Download
2025.05.29 – LCC’s Proposal re Art. 36Download
2025.05.29 – LCC’s Proposal re Art. 41Download
2025.05.29 – LCC’s Proposal re MOAs (Part 3), 4909-6584-4296, 1Download
Article 23 – 2025Download
Article 26 – 2025Download

Posted in General | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

First Bargaining Proposals

Posted on May 29, 2025 by LCCEA

Your LCCEA Bargaining Team meets with the College today at 1:00-4:00 in 2/214. All faculty are welcome to attend bargaining sessions, all or any part of a session, as silent observers.

Above: LCCEA Action Team and Bargaining Team Leads Working for a Fair Contract

LCC Faculty Colleagues –

Your LCCEA Bargaining Team Leads met on May 8 for its first “real” bargaining session where we exchanged proposals that were the first part of a four-part series of initial proposals by each party in accordance with our ground rules. Other proposals exchanged so far are also posted here on the blog.

We presented Part A of our initial package proposal (below), which is the section focused on student needs. In addition, we presented our proposal that the contract be a seven-year agreement with the economics set for the first three years, followed by two economic reopeners for two years each, as well as a proposal that the full contract utilize gender neutral language.

The Student Needs section includes: 

  • Increase support for student basic needs (i.e. food, housing, safe physical campus spaces); 
  • Ensure adequate staffing for student services (i.e., counseling/mental health, advising, tutoring) 
  • Reduce costs for students (i.e. textbook markup reduction, OER support, tuition waiver for DACA and undocumented students); 
  • Expand sanctuary campus provisions and use LCC Alert when ICE is on campus; 
  • Improve safety of physical campus (e.g., sufficient emergency call boxes); 
  • Provide sufficient restrooms (i.e. more than one restroom stall per building); 
  • Make campus more inclusive (i.e., sufficient gender neutral restrooms, open worship spaces, lactation spaces, complete a study of LCC name);
  • Provide an instructional specialist in classes with significant percentage of students with ADA accommodations; and
  • Create an appeal process for accommodations that fundamentally alter course. 

The College’s proposal (also below) includes:

  • A contract in effect for two years only;
  • A “complete agreement clause,” which would eliminate all previous agreements about the meaning of the contract (i.e., past practice) and would eliminate all MOAs not negotiated or incorporated into the new agreement;
  • New provisions for “budget exigency” which would allow the College to open the contract and renegotiate salaries at any time if any one of the ten circumstances they proposed were triggered, all ten of which would be determined by the Administration alone;
  • Establishment of accrual families for the Florence campus for part-time faculty seniority, which would include classes taught in Florence and also classes taught entirely online, which have no physical location;
  • Establishment of the Oregon residency requirement for all faculty with no exceptions.

As you can see, the proposals are wildly disconnected and quite distant at this early point. 

Your faculty bargaining team leads are dedicated to achieving the best contract to meet faculty and student needs.

Thank you to the many faculty who attended today’s session to observe in person and on Zoom!

All bargaining sessions are scheduled in building 2, room 214, including TODAY! Upcoming dates are as follows.

  1. May 29, 1-4
  2. June 5, 1-4

We look forward to seeing you soon.

Your LCCEA Bargaining Team Leads,

Gerry Meenaghan

Adrienne Mitchell

April Myler

Peggy Oberstaller

Ryan Olds

Russell Shitabata

Kellen Wilson

01LCCEAPackageProposalCoverSheetA_05082025Download
LCCEA_GenderNeutralLanguage05082025Download
LCCEA_ARTICLE 42 NEW Initial Proposal Student Needs 05082025Download
LCCEA_ARTICLE 2_05082025Download
Faculty_ Data and Needs 2025 — Part A (1)Download
2025.05.08 – College Proposal re Art 2, 6, 25, and 34, 4911-4159-3919, 6Download
Posted in General | Leave a comment

Bargaining Update: Faculty Needs & Safety

Posted on May 24, 2025 by LCCEA

LCC Faculty Colleagues –

Your LCCEA Bargaining Leads met with the Administration for bargaining again today. We exchanged proposals that are the third part of a four-part series of initial proposals. We will be presenting all our remaining initial proposals next Thursday, May 29, including economic proposals.

We presented Part C of our initial package proposal (attached), which includes proposals on: no subcontracting, expanded protections against discrimination, stronger privacy protections, essentials for faculty working conditions, and campus lockdown safety. 

Our LCCEA faculty proposal includes:

  • Protections against subcontracting of faculty work (Art. 4);
  • Expanded protections against discrimination and recourse when discrimination occurs (Art. 7);
  • Stronger privacy protection for faculty files, messages, and media (Art. 16);
  • Essentials for faculty working conditions, including private offices, up-to-date hardware and software, adequate IT support, funding and release time for a transition to a new LMS such as Canvas, sufficient funding for the instructional and student services mission of the college, and provisions to enhance ethics, integrity, and inclusiveness of hiring processes (new Art. 43); 
  • Provisions on AI that protect faculty academic freedom rights to choose to use or not use AI in faculty work, protection against supplanting faculty work with AI, privacy protections when accommodations require faculty be recorded for an accommodation, and reasonable consideration of climate impacts of AI (new Art. 43); and
  • Lockdown safety language, including a safety plan, classroom upgrades, training, and benefits to affected faculty and their family members in the event of injury or death in a tragedy (new Art. 45).

We shared a presentation with data from our All faculty surveys to underscore the needs and interests our proposals seek to address. In addition, we shared a memo that LCC’s general counsel sent to the LCC President and campus community back in 2023, which identifies many critical needs and steps that the College should take in order to be better prepared for a lock down, which align with our proposal on lockdown safety.

The College’s proposal presented today:

  • Would eliminate several MOAs, including eliminating the Distance Learning MOA (College cover page);
  • Change the contracted faculty work year by reducing the total number of paid non-instructional and class prep days from five to four (College Art. 9);
  • Require manager approval for part-time faculty to use inservice hours to attend meetings or workshops on campus (College Art. 9);
  • Make the Association’s Fall All Faculty Meeting unpaid time (College Art. 9); and
  • Revise their initial salary schedule placement for all faculty (College Art. 27).

After we raised concerns yesterday about how the College’s proposal, which would have lowered initial salary placement for new faculty, would not be consistent with Oregon’s Equal Pay Act, the Administration presented a revised proposal today to remedy those concerns, which is a good step in the right direction. 

The remaining proposals, however, appear to be more take backs in that the paid class prep/ non-instructional time for contracted faculty would be reduced. Similarly, part-time faculty would be subject to more close management with approval required for part-time faculty to use their in-service hours for meetings or workshops.

Thank you to the many faculty who attended today’s session to observe in person and on Zoom. All faculty are welcome to attend.

All bargaining sessions are scheduled in building 2, room 214. Upcoming dates are as follows. Please note the new dates added for June and September.

  1. May 29, 1-4
  2. June 5, 1-4
  3. June 26, 1-4
  4. Sept 11, 1-4
  5. Sept 30, 1-4

We look forward to seeing you soon.

Your LCCEA Bargaining Team Leads,

Gerry Meenaghan

Adrienne Mitchell

April Myler

Peggy Oberstaller

Ryan Olds

Russell Shitabata

Kellen Wilson

ARTICLE 43 NEW_LCCEAFaculty Needs_05232025Download
ARTICLE 16_LCCEA05232025Download
ARTICLE 45 NEW_LCCEACampus Safety_0523202Download
ARTICLE 4_LCCEA05232025Download
ARTICLE 7_LCCEA05232025Download
LCCLockdownMemo8.1.2023Download
2025.05.23 – LCC’s Proposal re Economic Reopener Agreement Art. 9 (Calendar)Download
2025.05.23 – LCC’s Proposal re Art. 9 (Calendar) (1)Download
2025.05.23 – LCC’s Proposal re Economic Reopener Agreement Art. 29 (Contracted and Part-Time Faculty Step Placement) (1)Download
2025.05.23 – LCC’s Proposal re Art. 9 (Calendar)Download
2025.05.23 – LCC’s Proposal re Art. 9 (Calendar)Download
2025.05.23 – LCC’s Proposal re Economic Reopener Agreement Art. 29 (Contracted and Part-Time Faculty Step Placement)Download
2025.05.23 – LCC’s Proposal re Art. 27 (Contracted and PT Faculty Salary Placement)Download
Posted in General | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Bargaining Update: College Proposes Numerous Take-Backs

Posted on May 22, 2025 by LCCEA

LCC Faculty Colleagues –

Your LCCEA Bargaining Leads met with the Administration for bargaining again today. We exchanged proposals that are the second part of a four-part series of initial proposals by each party in accordance with our ground rules.

We presented Part B of our initial package proposal (below), which includes proposals on: job security, year-long assignments for part-time faculty, Florence accrual families, public health safety, and Oregon residency. 

Our LCCEA faculty proposal includes:

  • Protections for faculty when minimum qualifications change, including time and funding to meet any newly required qualifications, retaining job security for pre-existing certifications, and an appeal process for faculty seeking certification (Art. 44);
  • The requirement that the College assign available courses to part-time faculty with seniority by the end of Spring for the following academic year (Art. 34);
  • The establishment of accrual families for part-time faculty teaching in Florence in a fair and equitable manner (Art. 34);
  • The requirement that the College follow safety guidelines in the event of any external public health requirements (e.g. CDC, OHA)  (new Art. 46); and
  • The provision of an appeal process and several exemptions to the requirement that faculty reside in Oregon, including protection for existing faculty living outside the state, program needs, and other fair, reasonable exceptions (new Art. 47).

The College’s proposal presented today would (below):

  • Reduce initial salary schedule placement and reduce the maximum initial salary step for new part-time and full-time faculty (College Art. 27);
  • Allow the College to change the definition of the academic year to any three consecutive terms and allow the College to assign both part-time and full-time faculty to a work year that could include summer as one of the three “academic year” terms (College Art. 1);
  • Would change the threshold for contracted salary rates to 0.75 FTE such that anyone working 0.75 or lower would be paid at part-time faculty salary rates (College Art. 1);
  • Reduce the notice time required for contracted faculty layoffs such that layoffs could take place at any time of the year with only 60 calendar days’ notice (College Art. 10);
  • Eliminate the minimum number of full-time faculty positions (College Art. 10);
  • Allow any faculty member to teach community or adult education classes but at salary rates determined unilaterally by the Administration, which could be as low as minimum wage (College Art. X); and
  • Eliminate fifteen MOAs (College Proposal Intro page).

We raised concerns about how the College’s proposal, which lowers initial salary placement for new faculty, would not be consistent with Oregon’s Equal Pay Act. The Administration stated they would review our concerns and get back to us at a later date. 

In addition, we raised concerns about a notice we recently received from the Administration indicating that they would revise workload calculations unilaterally outside of bargaining. At the table today, we explained that workload is a mandatory subject of bargaining, which means that the College is legally obligated to negotiate over it. We asked for confirmation that the College representatives understand and agree. We have not yet received confirmation.

Your faculty bargaining leads remain dedicated to achieving the best contract in solidarity with all faculty members.

Thank you to the many faculty who attended today’s session to observe in person and on Zoom.

All bargaining sessions are scheduled in building 2, room 214. Upcoming dates are as follows. Please note the new dates added for June and September.

  1. May 23, 12-2
  2. May 29, 1-4
  3. June 5, 1-4
  4. June 26, 1-4
  5. Sept 11, 1-4
  6. Sept 30, 1-4

We look forward to seeing you soon.

Your LCCEA Bargaining Team Leads,

Gerry Meenaghan

Adrienne Mitchell

April Myler

Peggy Oberstaller

Ryan Olds

Russell Shitabata

Kellen Wilson

2025.05.22 – LCC’s Proposal re Expired MOAs, 4930-2959-6997, 1Download
2025.05.22 – LCC’s Proposal re Art. 29 (Contracted Faculty Step Placement)Download
2025.05.22 – LCC’s Proposal re NEW Art (Community Education Classes)Download
2025.05.22 – LCC’s Proposal re Art. 10 (Retrenchment)Download
2025.05.22 – LCC’s Proposal re Art. 1 (Authority)Download
ARTICLE 44 NEW_LCCEAJobSecurity_05222025Download
Article 47 NEW_LCCEAOregon Residency_05222025Download
ARTICLE 46 NEWLCCEAHealth Safety_05222025Download
ARTICLE 34 LCCEA PT Faculty 05222025Download

Posted in General | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment