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Compiled by Steve Schermerhorn http://sjdcta.deltacollege.edu |
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President's MessageThe end of another school year has arrived and a much long awaited summer vacation is upon us. I would like to remind all who work adjunct and overload that they should see in their paycheck or as a second check in June extra money for parity pay covering the end of the fall semester and all of the spring semester. At this time we are looking at a 4.23 COLA for the next academic year. The one half percent increase in addition to the COLA will give us a 4.73 salary increase for next year. However, this does not go into effect until the State’s budget is passed, hopefully in July. On the subject of health benefits, a cost share should be expected to be paid during the 2005-2006 academic year. According to the contract that cost share is for the overage that occurred during the 2004-2005 academic year. We always pay the cost share one year in arrears. The cost of benefits for the 2005-2006 academic year were increased by CVT. Health care benefits for retirees were increased by 24%. Healthcare benefits for active employees were increased by 8.4%. The two increases average to an approximate overall increase of 15% this could lead to a significant cost share for the 2006-2007 academic year. Discussions and negotiations regarding health benefits are in progress and will continue throughout the summer months. Updates will be sent out via campus email throughout the summer. Please check your campus email on a weekly basis for updates. Any contractual modifications and/or changes regarding health benefits will require a vote by the membership. Any vote done during the summer will be done via the US mail. Therefore, keep abreast of updates for any summer voting that may occur. Anyone who would like any further information or would like to meet with me may do so by contacting me at (209) 298-7414. On behalf of the SJDCTA officers, I would like to thank all of you for electing us for an additional two-year term. We will continue to offer full services during the summer months, so feel free to contact us regarding any issues dealing with benefits, wages, and working conditions. We hope you all have an enjoyable and restful summer. --Joe Gonzales Treasurer's ReportAs your CTA Treasurer, it is my responsibility to provide you an update report on our financial status. Beginning each fall semester, SJDCCTA Executive Board adopts and approves a fiscal year spending budget that begins from September 1st and end on August 31st. Listed below is a comparison of our approved budget and actual expenditures as of May 20, 2005.
Clarence Louie, Treasurer 5/20/05 |
Former SJDC President DiRicco Discusses The History of Collective Bargaining at Delta.With the right to “meet and confer,” teachers at Delta College were eager to begin bargaining. Many Junior College teachers were not as eager as those at Delta, and for them, things went on as before. What was the same as before? The administration made up and presented teachers with a salary schedule without teacher input. Once a teacher had been hired by a district, that teacher’s salary progressed according to experience and qualifications. Only if a new salary schedule was adopted by the Board would teachers get a raise other the measured one on the salary schedule when they were hired. David Zagier was one of the teachers at Delta eager to bargain. His photo is in our Faculty Senate Office right above Irene Cotta’s desk. All the teachers and administrators who were on campus at the same time as Zagier remember him. Larry DeRicco, now retired, former President of Delta College, was part of the Administration in those first years. In an interview on May 7, 2005, he said that Burke Bradley, President in 1964, began bargaining by representing the Administration himself. Since this whole process was new, the Board subsequently decided that they themselves would represent the Administration. Several Board members attended the meetings, always making sure that their number never reached a majority of the Board. Had they reached a majority, the negotiations would have had to be opened to the public. (Negotiations are not open to the public to this day. The reason for this rule could be a column in itself.) So the process was all new. A couple of Board members would act as negotiators, and when they were busy elsewhere, they just asked other Board members to stand in. The teachers were represented by about five teachers, who also switched in and out as negotiators, depending on their schedules. Somewhere along the line, it was decided that Larry DeRicco and Ed Raleigh would be the silent research advisors in the negotiation meetings. They would not actively participate in the negotiations, but they would be responsible for the facts needed to bargain. At first, meetings consisted largely of various people presenting salary schedules. Mr. DeRicco said that since there were no computers, all the costing out of the salaries (look at the current salary schedule to see what that means) had to be done by hand. He was up late at night doing this costing out. There were many salary presentations in outline form. One of the first problems was the column that gives teachers salary according to their education. Teachers in technical education commonly had only Bachelor’s degrees, and sometimes they did not have Bachelor’s degrees. So equity there created a lengthy discussion. Salary is dependent on the degree the teacher holds, the years of experience, and the number of units beyond a degree. <--- Continues below, left. |
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While salary schedules were being worked out, the committee moved on to working conditions. What was a looming problem? How does the school pay for the salaries? In 1964, there was no Chancellor’s Office in Sacramento. All the dealing at the state level was done with the Department of Education. Junior Colleges began as part of a grades 1-14 system. Delta (other name, Stockton Junior College) was part of the Stockton Unified School District. Delta also had a relationship with University of the Pacific (then called COP or College of the Pacific) when the University was connected to the junior college as part of its school. In that way, students could be on the UOP campus, while UOP was paid by the state for the students. UOP thought that these students might then stay with the University to finish their education. Some teachers taught in both schools, Delta and UOP. Physically, the campuses were adjacent as many of you remember. Stockton Junior College splitting off and becoming an independent San Joaquin Delta College happened at about the same time as the Winton Act. To return to negotiations. How would the school pay for the salaries? How would this affect working conditions? Here was the compromise that Delta has worked on for many years. Salaries would be linked to WSCH (Weekly Student Contact Hours). Junior Colleges were paid, like K-12, on attendance. For Delta, the WSCH of a teacher teaching a three-unit class would be the number of students times the number of hours the class met a week. A class that met MWF from 11:00-12:00 and had a maximum of 30 students could bring in 90 WSCH a week; five of those classes, 450 WSCH. That might be a typical load of a teacher teaching five composition classes. In these early negotiations, the average WSCH agreed to was 575. Since composition classes and other classes would not bring in the average WSCH, other classes would need to be larger. Since the contract agreement was the average of all classes, size of classes was somewhat fluid. Class size and its variations was always under discussion in negotiations and in the hallways of Delta. Mr. DeRicco remembered some of the humorous moments of those early days of negotiations. Teachers and Administrators began meeting in the Board Room. Teachers later requested a more neutral environment, and the meetings were moved to the Clark Hotel in downtown Stockton. Meetings often lasted until late at night with committee members coming and going at midnight or 1:00 a.m.. Mr De Ricco tells this story: His wife was approached by a friend who asked, “Does your husband like his new job?” “Yes, he does, but the hours are quite demanding.” “I have to tell you this. He has been seen several times entering or leaving a hotel downtown. Something is going on.” Mr. DeRicco tells this story with a laugh, and Mrs. DeRicco laughs also. My guess is there was never a serious misunderstanding. Delta did not have a contract under the Winton Act. The salary schedule was agreed to and the average WSCH was agreed to. The contract as we know it today would come later under the Rodda Act. To be continued... --Barbara Broer |
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