The San Mateo Community College Federation of Teachers and the district reached a tentative agreement on the new faculty contract from July 2022 to July 2025 on Tuesday, Oct. 24, after more than nine and a half hours of a mediation session.
The American Federation of Teachers (AFT) is the larger union organization, but each district has the opportunity to have its local union. AFT 1493 represents the San Mateo Community College District faculty at CSM, Cañada, and Skyline.
AFT 1493 represents the 900 faculty members, all of whom work for the district. The last contract expired on June 30, 2022, meaning the faculty has worked without a contract for the past 16 months.
The staff works without a contract when the AFT and District Board of Trustees cannot agree on the terms of the new contract– forcing the teachers to work on the old contract without improved benefits that often aid the increased cost of living.
“Our union brought our initial proposals to the district in February of 2022, and the negotiations have been prolonged,” said Marianne Kaletzky, Executive Director and Member of the Negotiating Team. “It’s honestly been frustrating because we haven’t seen a lot of movement on their side throughout the process. Sometimes, it doesn’t seem like they’re in any hurry to get to an agreement.”
The teachers asked elected officials, like Kaletzky, to negotiate with the district for higher pay, disability accommodations, progress towards part-time parity, better health care benefits for all faculty, and full-time scheduling improvements.
“The list was about maybe 10 to 15 things you asked for because you know you’re not going to get them all,” said History Professor Rosemary Bell. “So you always ask for more than what you know you’re going to get.”
When the union works under the old contract, the district often provides faculty with a lump sum, a monetary sum paid all at once. Bell explained that the disconnect comes down to the fact that the board thinks the employees are asking for too much, and the faculty feels they don’t get to ask for enough– thus creating a “battle” between the union and the district.
“I have been here 33 years, and we have frankly had to beg every three years,” said Bell. “And we shouldn’t have to beg, but that’s the reality.”
Kaletzky feels similar to Bell, describing how hard it was to work with district negotiators, especially with scheduling. She explained that how it usually works is the union provides the district with 10 or 15 days, and they only come back with one day that works. She believes it is a question of whether they are willing to schedule.
This time, though, she said on top of the difficulty scheduling, they faced the added challenge of unproductive sessions, as much of their meeting time was filled by elongated district conference breaks.
“We would come with a proposal, and they would say, okay, we need to talk about this and take a conference break just to talk with their team for several hours, just to come back and tell us they weren’t interested,” said Kaletzky. “We would say, what was going on all this time? It took you basically the entire session to meet with your team privately and just say no.”
She expressed her frustrations because the longer the meetings stalled, the longer the staff had to work without a contract.
Another problem during negotiations the union faced was that the district hired an outside negotiator. Each side has a chief negotiator, and historically, the district has had someone who works within the district, someone who has an investment and wants to have a good relationship moving forward.
The district hired Randy Erickson, a lawyer based in San Diego, as their chief negotiator.
“This annoyed me because what does this person know?” said Bell. “[He] doesn’t even know what goes on up here. [He] probably doesn’t even know the cost of living. I mean, he just doesn’t.”
Furthermore, Kaletzky said that Erickson was based in Southern California, and all negotiations were conducted over Zoom. Negotiations were difficult because there was an apparent discrepancy, as Erickson didn’t have any prior knowledge or experience with the specifics of the district and the problems they faced.
“This person doesn’t care about this institution, students, faculty, and he gets paid by the hour,” said Rika Yonemura-Fabian, a professor and AFT 1493 Chapter Chair at Skyline College. “So the longer negotiations go, maybe the better for him.”
She furthered that it has become increasingly clear that the district does not care about the students and sees Skyline College as a business.
“Do you know what’s really irritating? During one of our board meetings during the pandemic, one of our board members referred to our students as customers, and there was a gasp among all of us,” said Bell. “Customers? I can understand how the lack of real respect will keep people from entering the profession.”
The tentative contract agreement states that full-time faculty will receive a 15% raise incremented over three years, and part-time faculty will also receive a 22.5% raise– a massive win as part-time faculty make up the majority of the faculty, and as Bell believes, those who carry the most significant burden.
For both, negotiations will reopen for a potential raise in the third year if property tax revenues raise at least 6% for San Mateo County this fiscal year.
Additionally, the tentative agreement is the first-ever contract that will include language on reasonable accommodation for faculty with disabilities. Kaletzky explained how the ADA process could drag on for years. The employees will not get the accommodation they need throughout the waiting period, which might force them to retire or change jobs.
“When we were in negotiations and brought up disabilities, the negotiator said that the district was not interested in discussing disability changes at this time because the ADA protects us,” said Bell. “I was livid. They may not be interested in it, but what about the poor slobs like us who come here every day? We’re in the trenches, and you can’t give somebody help. No? It was the cavalier attitude that made me so infuriated.”
One of the Skyline faculty members lost her eyesight in one eye, and she waited a year to get an adaptive computer program that would read aloud to her. She was the impetus behind the faculty demanding disability resources, as she was put in Building 12, where the glare was so harmful she couldn’t see and was unable to move classrooms. She now teaches all five of her classes online.
Bell doesn’t feel as though words are enough, but Kaletzky described that the district was very stubborn when negotiating, and while she understands the frustration, this was the best compromise.
The teachers at Skyline have yet to strike, nor have any at CSM or Cañada, because they are scared.
“People are scared of retribution, and that is not an abstraction here,” said Bell. “You have to be really careful at times, particularly if you don’t have tenure, you really don’t say anything.”
The ratification vote for the tentative contract begins today, Nov. 15th, and will close on Friday, Nov. 17th. The results will be announced on Monday, Nov. 20th, and then the SMCCCD Board of Trustees will vote on the contract to determine whether the teachers will begin to work under contract again, with better benefits.
“Teaching, I think, is such a noble profession, and oftentimes, teachers are treated pretty shallowly,” said Bell. “That’s just what it is. You have to have a calling, which may sound kind of pollyanna, but I do believe that very strongly.”
