As ECCFA enters mediation on Thursday, I want to provide an update. I will try very hard to schedule an all ECCFA meeting next week for further updates. This week was impossible as the only time available was after 2:30 on Friday. We may have to use that time slot in the future, however, I realize it is not the most desirable for many of you.
Your negotiation committee had meetings scheduled with the Board team for last Thursday and Saturday, meetings that I had high hopes for. As I indicated last week, we were very disappointed at the Board’s proposals on Thursday in that a number of items we have indicated as very important to us were not even considered by the Board and their proposals were very minimal for this stage of negotiations.
I requested mediation begin Saturday. The Board team declined.
The ECCFA committee did meet Saturday and ultimately met with the Board team, not to negotiate but to present to the two board members each side's proposals. My only observation here is, why did the Board team have to tell the Board members what their own proposals were? I feel we did not make good use of the time, and we made no measurable progress.
Our issues continue to center on the pace of negotiations, salary, proposed changes to insurance and the way faculty pay for health insurance, major changes to the current language for tenure and evaluation, Board resistance to clarification of academic freedom language, retaining a special retirement option and release time for ECCFA officers.
I again thank the negotiating committee and Jennifer Marsh (IFT) for their patience, professionalism and willingness to sacrifice huge parts of their days and nights to try to bring this process to an end. Make sure to give them an extra hearty thank you as we all enter negotiation “crunch time.”
Also, thanks to the committees as your jobs begin to ramp up. If you are not on one, contact Cindy Hutman, who has volunteered to coordinate the committees. She will help place you where help is needed.
Stay unified!
Rick Green
ECCFA V.P.
Negotiation Committee Chair
