A
Mountain of Challenges and Achievements in the Evergreen State.
The
Washington Federation of Teachers is working with Gov. Gary Locke
to designate Oct. 29 "Adjunct and Part-Time Faculty Recognition
Day." As part of its CEW activities, WFT and the Washington
Education Association will co-host a conference entitled "Bargaining
Equity for Part-Time Faculty." The meeting will highlight accomplishments
in legislation for adjuncts and part-timers and provide tips and
information on how to bargain better contractual provisions for
pay, benefits, and conditions of employment.
The Seattle Community College Federation of Teachers will use CEW
as an opportunity to better educate its members. With emphasis on
future political action, the federation will look at legislation
that has improved working conditions for part-time faculty, examine
the voting records of legislators, and ask part-time faculty to
contact their lawmakers to discuss their concerns and suggest ideas
for further legislation.
REPORT
At
this moment, I’m enjoying a feeling of success about a Campus
Equity Week event that we held at Olympic College in Bremerton,
WA. This evening, we had a Legislative Forum which was jointly
hosted by us, the part-time faculty caucus within our NEA-affiliated
union, and the student government. Master of Ceremonies was
the student body president. About 40 people attended, which
perhaps is a bit disappointing, but that number included a few adjunct
faculty, a handful of students, two trustees (we promoted the forum
last night at a Board of Trustees meeting), and few members of the
general community. I don’t believe any full-time faculty
members were present.
While we made clear that the status of part-time community college
faculty was to be a focus of the forum, we also made clear that
it was not to be the only focus, and that all issue confronting
our state would be fair game. As it turned out, part-time equity
was evident virtually throughout the discussion.
After introductions, I gave a five-minute recap of the major legislative
accomplishments over the past six years pertaining to part-time
faculty, focusing on the positive things that have happened and
pointing in the direction of new legislation that would not impact
the state budget but would still benefit part-time faculty, like
bills that might mandate local bargaining of job security and seniority
for part-time faculty. Several legislators made encouraging
remarks about those ideas.
That was followed by statements of up to 7 minutes by each legislator
present. Six of the nine legislators from the three legislative
districts in which our colleges operates came.
After those statements, questions from the audience were entertained,
the overwhelming majority of which seem to deal with equity and
funding of educational issues. They included:
• I've heard that if 1 percent of the tax breaks granted to
big business were to be recided, there would then be enough money
to fund part-time equity. Is that true?
• Has anyone ever worked in a position where they are paid
half of what the standard pay is?
• (In response to a Republican legislator who stressed the
need for a health business climate, free of excessive regulation,)
what guarantees that the colleges will get proper funding when we
break out of our economic downturn?
There was a very fine sense of community at the meeting, with the
audience appreciating the legislators, and even one legislator commending
all those who were present. As indicative of the positive sense,
one senator, who said before the meeting that she was planning to
leave before the question and answers because she had four meetings
scheduled during the day prior to our forum, ended up staying until
the very end, and gave me a hearty thank you at the meeting’s
conclusion.
To the four Democrats and two Republicans legislators who took part,
I believe the need for equity was acknowledge by them and reinforced,
and I think the six legislators collectively emphasized a real sense
of goodwill.
Best wishes,
Jack Longmate
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