What Has the Union Done For You Lately?

By Barbara Hanfling, FA, AFT 6157 Executive Director

1. Early Retirement Reduced Workload Program: Faculty on the Early Reduced Program-often referred to as the Willie Brown (Article 18.2) determine that they want to reduce their workload in the last years of employment in the District. Faculty may teach no less than 50% each semester and up to 99% (and get paid less), but their Retirement and Health Benefits remain at the full level, along with their sick leave accrual.

A faculty member approached the Union after she had been asked to teach an additional class on top of her reduced work load (She usually taught 80% and was asked to teach 100%). The Faculty member was told that she must bank her extra 20%.

This is blatantly illegal. This 20% additional load is not overload, but straight load as part of her 1.0 assignment and must be paid to the faculty member as full time pay. The Union and the faculty member have requested that this illegal “overload” now be converted to pay for the full time faculty member.

Please remember to contact your union when you are not sure about the information being provided to you.

2. Bridge Plan Enhancement for Full Time Faculty: The Union and District have signed a sideletter regarding the Medical Benefits bridge program to encourage Full Time Faculty to take advantage of this plan.

The Bridge Plan pays for medical benefits for the full time faculty member once the faculty member retires (note the Bridge Plan does not cover the spouse). The sideletter allows full time faculty to retire with 10 years of full time service and at the age of 55 but the faculty member must retire before June 30, 2013.

Faculty who meet the requirements of 10 years of full time instructional/non instructional service who are at least 55 years of age, may retire and receive full paid medical benefits for themselves until they reach the age of Medicare.

Please Note: if faculty hired after 1982 accept this Bridge plan, they immediately move onto the retirees medical plan for the time up to Medicare. This means that except for a $5.00 prescription co-pay, faculty on the bridge plan will not have any co payments, deductibles or increased prescription payments. The retiree health care plan has not changed since 2004.

3. Step Placement for New Full Time Faculty: A number of years ago, there often were significant errors in initial placement of full time faculty on the salary schedule. To remedy these errors, the District has agreed to meet with the Union on all new full time faculty hires and discuss and agree on the salary placement before it goes into effect. The result of these meetings has been an education process for the District and the Union.

At our most recent meeting we were discussing step placement of our new faculty. Our contract clearly stated that faculty with less than 6 years experience were placed at Step 1. The District had determined that meant that faculty with 6 years were placed at step one. We agreed on the proper interpretation and 2 of our new faculty (Rachel Hagan: Step 3 to Step 4 and May Chen: Step 2 to Step 3), both moved one additional step from where the District had originally proposed they be placed.