Non-Teaching Staff Stages Sickout at Saddleback College

On the first day of registration for the fall semester, about a third of the non-teaching employees of Saddleback Community College District staged a sickout Tuesday in an apparent dispute over contract negotiations.

Union representatives insisted the action was neither organized nor condoned by the California School Employees Assn., which represents the 380 clerical, custodial and technical workers at the district’s two campuses.

But administrators, who had to man registration tables as about 1,000 students signed up for the fall semester at Saddleback College, said the action is almost definitely related to contract negotiations.

Irvine Valley Also Hit

Irvine Valley College was also hit by the sickout, although to a lesser degree, officials said.

Chancellor Richard J. Sneed, who was helping out at Saddleback College’s registration, said administrators had heard rumors of an impending sickout as early as late last week. He said he met with two union leaders, and they assured him they were not organizing such an action.

“But this is certainly related to that,” Sneed said. “This action concerns us because it is contrary to the law, and it is obviously not in the best interests of the community or the students.”

He said all employees who called in sick Tuesday would be docked a day’s pay unless they present a doctor’s written excuse.

Tamara Carnine, chief negotiator for the CSEA chapter, said she had no information about a job action.

“I have no idea how many people are out today,” she said. “It’s not a job action sponsored or organized or whatever by the CSEA. If somebody is calling it a job action, CSEA isn’t. . . . I don’t see how anybody can say it’s an illegal action because it’s not an organized action.”

Of the ongoing contract negotiations, she said they were “not going real well. Right now we’re waiting for fact-finding to start taking place.”

The workers have been without a contract since June 30 and are seeking a pay increase of 4% to 7%, plus the implementation of a new job classification plan which will include raises for many workers retroactive to July, 1988.

One stumbling block has been how to implement the classification plan, Sneed said.

Mediation Accepted

“We agreed to negotiate whether to do this in one year or over a period of two years. . . . That’s part of the discussion--how much can we do, over what period of time, plus the cost of living,” he said.

The district and the representatives have agreed to go to mediation, and are awaiting fact-finding, a process of investigation directed by the state’s Public Employment Relations Board.

Workers have been staging picket lines in the mornings before work and then again after work. About 60 of them picketed a Board of Trustees meeting last month, Carnine said.

Classified workers include secretaries, admissions and records personnel, painters, carpenters, electricians, purchasing personnel, information services and systems workers and even the public information officer, who did report for work on Tuesday.

“The vast majority (of employees) are here,” Chancellor Sneed said. “But if you have people missing from every department, then every department is hurt.”

Registration on Tuesday was held until 8:30 p.m. Saddleback College President Constance M. Carroll manned one of the tables along with the deans of some departments and some faculty members.

Vice Chancellor William Kelly stood outside the registration office, answering questions of students in line to make sure the process did not get bogged down. But throughout most of the day, there were never more than about a dozen people in line.

“It’s unfortunate, but we’re coping,” he said. “Everything seems to be going pretty well. There are no long lines.”

In the library, where students went to make their course selections, many said they did not even notice there was a job action.

“It’s running pretty smoothly,” said student Joe Waters, 18. “It would probably help to have people who are used to doing this, but these people are doing a great job under the circumstances.”