Contract meeting, Sunday, March 18

This is a notice to confirm an all ECCFA meeting Sunday at 2:00 pm in the ATC auditorium to review the tentatively agreed to contract language that resulted from the recent contract negotiations.

Only the changes to our contract will be discussed. You may want to consider bringing your last ECCFA contract for reference.

Please note the following:

Use the Visual and Performing Arts (VPA) entrance as the others may be locked. You will likely not have access to your offices as access doors between buildings may be locked. Only members of the ECCFA may attend this meeting. After the discussion, I will request a vote by ballot for ratification.

Thank you.

Rick Green
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SETTLEMENT!

At 1:10 a.m. both sides emerged with a tentative agreement for "the good of the college," according to a joint statement. Details will not be released until ratification occurs.

In unity,

Gary Christenson

Talks continue as of 11:30 p.m.

According to chief negotiator Rick Green, both sides are still trading proposals as of this hour. Some progress is being made.

ECCFA members should stay tuned to this blog for a late-night announcement either way.

Meanwhile, approximately 50 faculty, students and community members continue to wait for word in the hallways of lower ICT.

Vigil continues during mediation

Faculty and students wait in vigil for an agreement this evening. Both sides at this hour continue to talk. Mediation began at 4 p.m.

Sides exchanging proposals

According to Rick Green, both sides have exchanged proposals and are talking. At this point, proposals contain multiple items the teams call packages. Faculty and community members are standing vigil in the ICT building to support the ECCFA team.

Expect more updates throughout the evening.

Gary Christenson
Cell: 847-602-1115

Message from the Transportation Committee

In the event of a strike, main campus picketers should park at the Elgin Sports Complex east of McLean Blvd. A shuttle will take you to your picketing locations.

Fountain Square picketers should park in one of the two public parking garages, located at Spring and Chicago streets and Spring and DuPage. You will need to walk to your assigned locations.

To get to headquarters, park in the Sports Complex. A shuttle will run hourly to the strike headquarters located at Big Timber and Randall roads.

Mediation Update

Mediation ended tonight/this morning at 1:00 AM so this will be short.
The session lasted 15 1/2 hours. Nothing was signed. Some progress was made on a couple of issues and no progress was made on others as the BOT continues to refuse discussion. We had a number of folks in vigil with your committee right to the end. Thanks to all who gave their time today, providing food, energy and much needed support to the ECCFA negotiation team. Another mediation session is scheduled for Monday at 4:00.

The meeting at Streets of Chicago (in the lower level) is on for 2:00 PM today (Sunday). It is located next to the Colonial Restaurant by the college on McLean Blvd.

In Unity.
Rick Green

Mediation Update

The mediation started at 9:30 this morning (Saturday) and is still continuing at this point (6:00 PM). We are continuing to talk and will stay as long as we feel we are still making progress. We have agreed to some language; however, we have not signed anything. I do not have a feeling at this point how long we will continue but your ECCFA committee is committed to stay the duration as long as we are moving forward.

There is a vigil that is continuing outside ATC 126 with many faculty, ECC students and youngsters that are here to help support us and keep our energy levels high. Your committee remains as you are, committed, strong and prepared.

At this point the meeting at Streets of Chicago is still on. Please check again before tomorrow afternoon for an additional update.

In Unity.

Rick Green

ECCFA Update

The ECCFA held an all faculty meeting yesterday (Thursday) to provide a negotiation update and continue the planning process related to a job action. The ECCFA negotiation team is mediating tomorrow beginning at 9:00 AM. Anyone that would like to show support is welcome to participate in a vigil in the hallway near ICT 126 as we work Saturday to bring mediation to a successful end.

The ECCFA will be having a strike workshop on Sunday the 11th starting at 2:00 at the Streets of Chicago on McLean Blvd by the Colonial Restaurant. The room is down the stairs immediately on your left as you enter the building. An update on the Saturday mediation session will be provided. Jennifer Marsh our IFT rep will also be available to answer questions and we hope to have Al Szabo as a guest insurance expert available to assist members with further questions regarding the COBRA insurance. Al will only be available from 2:00 to 3:00.

In summary, the mediation issues remaining are salary, insurance, evaluation, academic freedom, retirement options, release time, longevity pay, and several letters of agreement.

The ECCFA is also working on some expenditure guidelines related to a possible strike. We will detail those at the Sunday workshop.

Thank you.
In Unity Rick Green ECCFA VP

Board violates own request and goes public with details of talks

After getting assurances from the ECCFA team that details of key issues would not be discussed in the press, the Board yesterday released details and proposed contract language to area papers, showing again that they're not willing to bargain in good faith, or perhaps showing that no one person seems to be in charge of the Board team.

The release went out yesterday afternoon. I received a copy of the release from a reporter, which was passed on to the ECCFA team. While reporters received details of the talks, the Board is still keeping students in the dark with sketchy information on the college Web site. Obviously, for this Board, its agenda, whatever that may be, comes ahead of students.

Read the Daily Herald article that came out this morning, as well as an article in the Courier.

In unity,

Gary Christenson

Board engages in scare tactics

Please be aware that there is inaccurate information in the certified letters mailed to you by the Board this week. Your health insurance CANNOT be canceled the day you strike.

By law, your benefits will continue for 30 days after that. It's an unfair labor practice for the administration to mislead faculty in the way they have. This is likely intentional, as they did the same thing in 2001. At that time, ECCFA filed a ULP, which was later withdrawn as a condition of settlement.

I've asked Linda Hefferin to send the letter to the union attorney, Gil Feldman, for analysis and for advice on response.

In short, don't worry about the threats in this letter. Put your efforts into strike preparation. Above all, remain unified. Our best defense is solidarity.

In unity,

Gary Christenson

Mediation continues Wednesday

Both the ECCFA and the ECC Board team continued mediation on Monday, this time for nearly seven hours. However, there were no sign-offs.

Rick Green, the ECCFA's chief negotiator, reported that there was movement on key issues by both sides and that a number of proposals were exchanged. The two sides agreed to meet again with the mediator at 4 p.m. on Wednesday and possibly again on Saturday.

Green is planning to call an all-faculty meeting for 3 p.m. on Thursday.

Regarding those certified letters...

Some have alerted me to a certified letter that the college sent out (at a cost of $4.88 each) regarding payroll stoppage and the turning in of office keys, etc. Rest assured that this is standard boiler plate out of the HR department. If anything, it shows that our informational picketing and media campaign are having the desired effect. Of course it's the Board's right to take all of those actions during a strike, but they took none of them during the last strike, even though they threatened to do so.

The cost of this letter simply serves as another example of careless spending of tax dollars, which is emerging as the hallmark of this board and administration. By the way, in case you're wondering why there isn't office space for adjuncts and, in some cases, up-to-date instructional equipment, our own college data indicate that there is now one administrator for every full-time faculty member at an average annual salary of $100,000. Go figure.

In unity,

Gary Christenson

Details on Saturday mediation

The ECCFA Negotiation Committee met today (Saturday) from 9:00 to 12:15 p.m. in mediation with the BOT committee. The mediator was present. While no proposals were tentatively agreed to today, your committee believes we had some good discussion and did see some elements of movement in a few BOT proposals in which there had been no or minimal previous movement.

We did not, however, find movement in all positions by the BOT. To facilitate and speed up the process, your ECCFA committee worked until 3:00 p.m. to provide responses to the BOT proposals and then delivered them so the BOT committee can review the ECCFA proposals and be ready for discussion on Monday at 4:00 p.m.during our next mediation session.

Thank you to everyone who attended the all faculty meeting yesterday.We had just under 100 faculty in attendance on a very cold, snowy, windy Friday afternoon. I gave a negotiations update and Cindy Hutman gave acommittee overview, while the committee chairs provided status reports regarding their activities in preparation for a strike. We also discussed what the coming week may entail.As I stated yesterday, we are at a grave point in negotiations. We are not seeing a lot of movement by the BOT, and as they have refused to move on several important issues, preparations must continue. We do not have a lot of time.

Stay tuned this coming week. We will have some instructions for you and most likely need your help. Also, be sure to continue giving your Negotiation Committee members lots of support as you have been. They are entering the most difficult of times in the negotiation of your ECCFA contract.

In unity,

Rick Green

Some progress seen in today's talks

According to chief negotiator Rick Green, some progress was made in this morning's mediation.

Both sides met for approximately four hours, exhanged some proposals and inched closer on a few issues. "I would not call it substantial progress," Green said, "but there was movement."

Both sides will meet again on Monday at 4 p.m. with the mediator. The ECCFA filed its 10-day intent to strike notice this past Friday with the Illinois Education Labor Relations Board; however, talks between the board and association continue.

Saturday's headlines

In case you missed it, the Daily Herald had an update about our mediation in today's edition. The Chicago Tribune gave us a mention too.

Look here over the weekend for news on Saturday morning's negotiations.

In unity,

Gary

Update from Rick Green...

The ECCFA entered mediation last night with the Board of Trustees. The meeting lasted from 4:00 until about 10:45. Nothing was signed and in my opinion, no progress was made through the discussion.

We did meet the mediator and the ECCFA Negotiation Committee passed a number of proposals that were not responded to by the Board team last night.

We are meeting Saturday from 9-12 to discuss those proposals. We also have a another negotiation meeting scheduled for Monday at 4:00.

Today the ECCFA will submit the IELRB-required 10-day notice of intent to strike.

This means we have to wait a mandatory minimum 10 days before a strike can occur. In addition, mediation must fail. I will not say at this point mediation has failed; however, I will say in my opinion, last night was a failure as far as the tough issues go. All we accomplished was discussing once again the issues that have been discussed to death. At least the mediator should have a good handle on the positions.

I have scheduled an all ECCFA meeting for today (Friday) in ATC auditorium at 3:30 for an update and a report on what is next. If you are not on a committee, get on one now! Contact Cindy Hutman. We will need your help.

Stay tuned and unified!

Rick Green
ECCFA VP

No agreement reached in Thursday mediation

The ECCFA negotiating team spent seven hours in mediation Thursday night. According to chief negotiator Rick Green, there was no progress. No sign-offs on any items occurred. Proposals were presented to the Board team, which did not respond. The two sides will meet Saturday morning with the mediator; however, ECCFA will file the 10-day intent to strike notice on Friday, March 2.

Rick Green has called an all-faculty meeting for Friday afternoon at 3:30 when more information will be available.

On Wednesday, the faculty senate voted to authorize the ECCFA negotiators to call a strike.

Online classes during a strike

There have been some questions about how online classes should be handled during a strike. It's important that all instructional service is interrupted during a strike, so please treat these courses no differently than your on-site classes. Instruction stops. For asynchronous classes, students will likely continue their studies, but you're not to interact with them during a strike. To do so would be self-defeating and may cause a strike to be longer than necessary. It's also possible that the administration would lock us out of Desire2Learn. We don't know. This is a new system since the last strike.

Hope that clarifies the situation.

In unity,

Gary Christenson