A union with 3 million strong

By this time, you are most likely well into a new academic year. But don’t think you are out there alone. When you go to work, you have more than 3 million people behind you.

CCA President Ron Norton Reel and CTA President David A. Sanchez meet to discuss union issues.

Most powerful union

It may sound corny, but as a member of the Community College Association (CCA), you have a voice within the 340,000-member California Teachers Association (CTA) and the 3.2 million-member National Education Association (NEA). Together, it can be said that we are the most powerful education union in the country.

No other union testifies with such power at legislative hearings, shares such passion regarding faculty rights, and accomplishes as much for our members as CCA/CTA/NEA. This past summer, our union heard from eight of the top presi­dential candidates at the NEA’s Representative Assembly in Philadelphia. No other union was able to provide that opportunity to their delegates. They sim­ply did not have the influence.

CCA has a representative council that is made up of delegates from each of our local chapters. These delegates are sent by their local chapter to have their concerns voiced. Each delegate is empowered with the same power as the next delegate. Each vote has the same power whether the del­egate is a full-timer with 30 years teaching and membership, or a part-time faculty member in the first year of teaching. Local chapters send their faculty prepared to represent issues they have discussed and that is important to them. Because we are a democratic body, leadership must follow the mandates of the majority.

Last year, our members spoke out about the need to further improve work­ing conditions of faculty on campus. The leadership of CCA listened and has taken action. As a result, CCA/CTA now has three sponsored legislative bills and one new bill designed to enhance the working conditions of full-time and part-time faculty.

AB 1305 by Assembly Member Ron Calderon (D-Montebello) will create more than 1,400 new full-time faculty positions by enforcing current legislation that allows districts to waive the law year after year.

CCA believes it is time to demand that 75 percent of community college classes be taught by full-time fac­ulty providing outside office consultation to students as needed. There is no need for more than 25 percent of classes on any community college campus to be taught by specialized business professionals.

CCA/CTA-sponsored AB 906 by Assembly Member Mike Eng (D-El Monte) mandates random audits of each district to enforce that at least 53 percent of all money allocated to each district is spent on faculty salaries. We are redefining each and every group of faculty permitted to receive those funds to include teaching faculty as well as our counselors and librari­ans who are faculty too.

A third CCA/CTA sponsored bill, AB 1423 by Assembly Member Mike Davis (D-Los Angeles) will require each of the 72 college districts in California to treat the teaching faculty of each depart­ment in the same manner. It will man­date that no faculty member within a department be compensated at a higher amount for doing the same work if educa­tion and experience are the same.

CCA/CTA is also exploring legisla­tion that would uphold the split set forth under Proposition 98 split each year. This would provide 89 percent to K-12, and a set 11 percent for community colleges. This split will provide approximately an additional $175 million to be used as the base allocation.

CCA/CTA is examining recent accreditation recommendations that affect our working conditions. CTA legal staff is scrutinizing the manner these recommen­dations directly or indirectly affect the work we do on a daily basis. Development of additional curriculum, learning out­comes, and peer review that is mandated in some of the accreditation recommenda­tions is also being examined. We will work to ensure compliance with our negotiated contracts. No other entity except the exclusive representative has the power to change the mandates of our working con­ditions. CCA/CTA/NEA will be there each step of the way.

Many of our chapters are busy work­ing on Phase 2 of the California Community College Initiative. During Phase 1, CCA’s local chapters chapters raised approximately 50 percent of the funds for the initiative collected from all colleges. Because CCA took a support position on this initiative, each chapter is free to assist in any manner they wish dur­ing phase 2 which started this summer.

NEA is lobbying very hard regarding the social security offset. It’s ironic that the U.S. Congress wants to prevent facul­ty from having social security during our retirement while Congressional represen­tatives have made it available to them­selves. NEA is fighting to secure our retirement benefits on behalf of our local chapters.

This is just a partial list highlighting the way CCA/CTA/NEA are working to improve your working conditions. Make no mistake, all of this began with you and your faculty brothers and sisters who got involved in the first place. If you are already involved in your local chapter, stay involved. If you’re not, make some time for your union. We can’t make these posi­tive changes without you.