Community colleges in California have seen a wave of organizing activity in the past two years--with elections won, new locals affiliated and new contracts being negotiated statewide. Cards were filed for faculty in two community college districts last spring, and a third filing is imminent. A common denominator in all three districts is a search for stability--especially given the uncertainties of a state budget deeply in the red.

In April, an AFT organizing committee at Cerritos Community College filed cards for a unit representing 300 full-time and 650 part-time faculty. The committee has reasons to be proud, says AFT national representative Linda Cushing. For one thing, Cerritos is the last community college district in the state where faculty have lacked representation. For another, leaders of the full-timers and part-timers have established a unique power-sharing arrangement to work collegially on issues of mutual interest. Their goal is to sweep the election (set for October) and settle differences--if there are any--before they get to the bargaining table.

Cerritos has been dragging itself through a period of high administrative turnover, Cushing explains. The latest president was asked to leave; the faculty and union are the only source of continuity. They have been engaged in a meet-and-confer process--"We call it meet and beg," says Cushing--but as often as not, the administration reneges on agreements "if it feels it cannot afford them," she adds.

Over the past decade, full-time faculty have seen salaries drop steadily compared to other faculty in the state's 72 districts, while part-time faculty salaries have been near the bottom of all urban districts in Southern California. Following the passage of a state bill mandating $57 million in funds targeted to raise part-time faculty salaries, however, the faculty feel hopeful about their ability to address that slippage through the work of a union. And because they are working together, part-timers feel they can raise their standard of living without having to compete with full-timers for the same pot of money.

Part-timers-only units in two districts

Part-time faculty working with the AFT have filed a petition for an election at the College of the Canyons in the Santa Clarita Community College District, and another petition filing at Victor Valley Community College District is on the horizon. Their road to securing the right to bargain collectively is proving to be a bumpy one, however--the result of some unusual circumstances involving funding and management shenanigans, reports Cushing.

First, some background: In 2001, after years of effort, part-time faculty groups led by the California Federation of Teachers, achieved a major coup when Gov. Gray Davis proposed a $57 million pool of funds to address part-time faculty pay equity disparities in the community colleges. The legislation governing the budget act stipulated that colleges must work with a bargaining agent representing the part-timers. Together they would address such questions as how to define pay equity for part-timers and how to apply the funds to correct disparities.

The first batch of money was made available for the 2001-02 academic year, and colleges have until February 2003 to distribute the money or lose the funds. Despite a $20 billion budget deficit in the state, the governor has thus far indicated that the second batch of $57 million is still in the budget for next year. Once the part-timers in a given district have reached agreed-upon parity goals, the district can use the funds for other purposes.

At College of the Canyons, where full-time faculty have been represented by a non-AFT bargaining agent for years, administrators moved quickly to position themselves to qualify for a piece of the $57 million action. While part-timers were openly organizing with AFT and collecting signatures to petition for an election, management was moving to have the part-timers folded into the full-time unit.

This sudden interest was a problem for the part-timers for several reasons, says Cushing. For one thing, the full-time union had declined many years of requests to represent the part-time faculty. For another, the CFT/AFT performance in the state had thoroughly convinced the educators that their best prospects lay with the CFT. In two years, the CFT has won three elections, affiliated another unit and negotiated one of the strongest first contracts in state history at North Orange County Community College.

When the AFT filed a majority of cards with the California Public Employment Relations Board this past spring, College of the Canyons administrators were quick to say it would only recognize part-timers as part of the full-time unit. As a result, the AFT has filed an unfair labor practice against the district, charging managers with violating a statutory requirement that they be neutral. The California PERB has placed an injunction on the district not to bargain part-time faculty matters with the full-time faculty representatives. The same situation is unfolding at Victor Valley, where the part-time faculty hope to file cards this fall.

"The part-timers have the moral high ground," says Cushing, having filed a majority of cards that show their wishes. "We ask management, 'Why are you standing in their way?'"

One possible answer: self-interest. Legislators are counting on unions to be the watchdogs on how districts use the funds. State law stipulates that the equity money is not supposed to be used to supplant what otherwise was being spent on part-time faculty. Already, the CFT is aware of districts that are trying to shift the money into place to cover old, unrelated commitments. The union is raising questions.

"Part-time faculty at COC and VV are paying the price for AFT's previous success in other places," says Cushing. "We're aggressive advocates for these people. The district is looking at us nervously, believing they'll have to give up more in the way of money, administration (medical benefits, for example) and other things. Districts will have to change record keeping and accounting because they never bothered to break out part-time from full-time overload. We're putting them through their paces. That's just as it should be." [Barbara McKenna / AFT On Campus]

[September 25, 2002]