Modesto Junior College instructors get big raise; other unions strike for better pay
Instructors at Modesto Junior College and Columbia College near Sonora overwhelmingly ratified a contract that amounts to a 10 percent pay increase for faculty.
The settlement appears to end three years of mostly fruitless negotiations between the union and Yosemite Community College District, which boiled over into a two-day strike in late November and a threat to walk again in mid-January.
The tentative agreement for almost 300 full-time instructors and 426 part-time teachers could be approved by the YCCD board at a special meeting on Jan. 24 at 2:30 p.m. The Yosemite Faculty Association has dropped its threat of a two-week strike this month, which could have canceled classes for thousands of students.
This year is shaping up to be a feisty one for California public employees, who’ve taken to strikes at University of California hospitals, Los Angeles schools and courts throughout the Central Valley to press for better wages and working conditions. In Stanislaus County, social workers and mental health therapists were in the ninth day of a strike Wednesday, demanding pay raises and county government action to reduce their caseloads.
In the latest update, the 700 county workers represented by Service Employees International Union Local 521 voted Wednesday to end the strike and hoped a meeting with Chief Executive Officer Jody Hayes would help break a deadlock. Hours later, the SEIU announced a tentative agreement had been reached.
Records at the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics show that large strikes where 1,000 or more workers walk out declined last year, but union advocates are noticing a trend. “We’re seeing a level of activism from workers that we haven’t seen in decades,” said Steve Smith, spokesman for the California Labor Federation.
Two trends seem to be driving much of the activism, said Smith and other state labor leaders. First, public employees say they’re straining to keep up with the state’s high cost of living. The average wage for California teachers is $80,600, and the average wage for striking teachers in Los Angeles is about $75,000.
It’s good money, but often not enough for families to settle down in high-cost communities like Los Angeles.
“What is steadily increasing in California is the wealth gap. We’ve got teachers in LA going out on strike so they can afford to live where they work,” said Kathryn Lybarger, president of AFSCME 3299, a union that represents University of California health workers. Her union went on strike in October and its contract remains open.
Second, public employee unions suffered a major financial blow in June when the U.S. Supreme Court handed down a ruling that forbid them from charging fees to workers who did not choose to join them. That decision, known as Janus vs. AFSCME, cost California government unions millions of dollars a year in revenue they collected in so-called fair-share from workers who benefited from contract negotiations but did not want to be in a labor organization.
As a result, many public employee unions are communicating more with workers and trying to demonstrate their value to workers who are no longer obligated to give them a share of their paychecks.
“In the public sector after the Janus ruling, you have unions with a much more active role in engaging membership and demonstrating why people need a union,” said Ken Jacobs, chairman of the UC Berkeley Labor Center.
Frustration led to MJC strike
Jim Sahlman, president of the Yosemite Faculty Association, representing instructors at MJC and Columbia, said Wednesday that 91 percent of its dues-paying members cast votes and 99 percent voted to ratify the tentative contract. The agreement through June 30, 2020, includes retroactive increases back to July 2017 and another raise effective Jan. 1, all adding up to a 10 percent hike in pay.
Sahlman said faculty members at MJC had never walked off the job in the school’s 98-year history. He said the strike was a last resort after a prolonged deadlock in the talks with YCCD and an impasse process that failed to yield results last year.
“We were taken to the point of leaving classrooms because it got that bad,” Sahlman said. “What we are seeing not only in education, but in other professions, is unions are demanding that people are treated with respect ... You have seen a lot of education unions striking, starting from back east and moving in this direction.”
Sahlman said the breakthrough for YFA came shortly after a mediator released a fact-finding report in December and made recommendations for resolving issues. The frustrated teachers had resolved to hold a two-week strike when students returned from the holidays for the spring semester in mid-January.
What made the difference was 16 hours of earnest negotiations the weekend before Christmas. “We finally started having discussions that we could not have for three years,” Sahlman said. “It says a lot that (district representatives) went in with open minds and everyone who participated from both teams made sacrifices. When that happens, the communications are better. The tone is better. It seemed like we could put the past behind us and move forward.”
In a statement Wednesday, YCCD Chancellor Henry Yong said the YFA was willing to work in a collegial manner to seek a solution to long-standing issues. “In a spirit of cooperation, we were able to mutually cover much ground, and the progress made was impressive,” Yong said.
The tentative agreement is historic for the district and begins a new chapter for compensating faculty, the chancellor added.
The YFA and district scrapped a salary comparison of junior colleges in California that had been a bone of contention in negotiations last year. The YCCD was at the bottom of the 10-district comparison and the union wanted to get back to the middle, which would have required a 23 percent pay increase over time.
For the next round of negotiations in the 2020-21 budget year, the parties will consider other factors, such as cost-of-living, state budget forecasts and the number of students taught, in a new model for compensation.
A YCCD request for larger class sizes was another sticking point in the negotiations. To settle that issue, the parties have agreed that faculty members and administrators in each academic department will discuss the appropriate class-size maximum for the subject matter.
The class sizes will be settled in May and become effective next fall.
Continued stalemate
Until Wednesday night’s announcement of a tentative agreement, a stalemate had continued between SEIU 521 and Stanislaus County after union members overwhelmingly rejected a “last, best and final” offer from the county last week. The county’s offer of a near 10 percent raise — 3 percent each year for the next three years — wasn’t enough to convince the employees to return to their jobs.
The county’s offer also included equity-based wage increases for community health workers, health educators, mental health clinicians, child support specialists, animal service officers and social workers. In this labor dispute, the previous contract expired about six months ago and 23 meetings held between the county and union negotiators failed to bring them close on economic terms.
SEIU members had said the union was seeking 5 percent raises for the workers in each of the next three years.
There were no details on Wednesday night’s agreement, which still needs to be ratified by union members and the Stanislaus County Board of Supervisors, according to a news release.
The social workers represented by SEIU work with neglected and abused children, and other staff members provide assistance for the homeless, seniors and veterans. The county has insisted the strike, which began Jan. 3, did not impact essential services.
“Appointments have been rescheduled here and there, and managers have had to backfill to help out, but services have not ground to a halt,” county spokeswoman Amy Vickery said in an email Wednesday. According to Vickery, most of the 700 employees represented by SEIU reported for work Wednesday.
About 100 were on strike and 60 were on some form of approved leave, before union members voted to end the walkout.
Wednesday night, Kate Selover, Child Support Officer II and Stanislaus County Chapter President, said: “This agreement allows us to resume the jobs that we love and move forward with the county on our shared commitment to serving the residents of Stanislaus County.”
This story was originally published January 16, 2019 at 5:00 PM.