Long Beach : City College Employees Plan Union Rally

An estimated 400 to 500 faculty members and non-teaching employees at Long Beach City College will stage a rally at the board of trustees meeting Tuesday to call attention to the impasse in contract negotiations for both groups.

The teachers have asked for a 10% pay increase, binding arbitration, an extra discretionary day off, and retirement and health benefits based on length of service. Management has offered the 295 faculty members a 2.5% increase retroactive to August or a 5% increase retroactive to January. Management would not negotiate on any of the other items, a teacher’s union official said.

Faculty salaries now range from $19,745 to $40,745, said Arlyss Burkett, director of public affairs at the college.

Burkett would not comment on the college’s offer, but said, “We would like to resolve this as early as possible.”

Union leaders at the college said a state mediator is expected to enter the negotiations but that an agreement might not be reached before the end of summer. Bargaining began in November. Contracts for both unions expired Dec. 31.

“We are trying to encourage the district to break that impasse,” said Mary Weir, president of the Long Beach Community College District chapter of the California Teachers Assn. “One of the ways we plan to show our anger and intensity is through the rally.”

Patti Anderson, chief negotiator for the California School Employees Assn. chapter in the community college district, said the union, which represents about 250 non-teaching LBCC employees, is asking for a 7% pay increase retroactive to January and two additional holidays. The college had offered a 5% increase retroactive to January or a 2.5% increase retroactive to July.

The rally will begin at 5 p.m. on the lower level of the College Center at the Liberal Arts Campus.

The Port of Long Beach, the West Coast’s busiest after 20 years of rapid growth, moved more cargo from more ships than ever in 1984, port officials announced this week.

Cargo exceeded 55.3 million metric tons, compared to 49.9 million tons in 1983 and about 25 million a decade ago.

Last year also brought an all-time high of 4,785 ships to the harbor, up from 4,474 in 1983.

Despite the solid gains, growth seems to be slowing, said port spokesman Elmar Baxter. “Like many ports, we’re in a flat period right now,” he said. “We’ll be lucky if we match last year’s figures (in 1985).”