Contract Near at El Camino College

Negotiators have reached an agreement in principle on a contract for faculty members at El Camino College, union and college officials said Thursday.

The agreement will probably be voted on by union members and the college Board of Trustees in two weeks.

It calls for a three-year contract, with a 5.5% salary increase for 1990 retroactive to January, and can be reopened for salary negotiations in the third year, said Lance Widman, president of the El Camino College Federation of Teachers. The salary increase in the second year, which will probably be about 5.5%, is based on a formula tied to the funding the college receives for that year, he said.

Teachers have worked without a contract since January. The agreement was struck late Sunday night, Widman said.

Even so, some El Camino faculty members decided to go ahead with a previously planned job action on Monday, the first day of classes, by refusing to allow new students to register in their classes, he said. Teachers told students the action was a response to “the district’s insensitivity to teachers’ needs and students’ needs” and told them to call College President Sam Schauerman, Widman said.

The parties have planned a mediation session for Tuesday. Some language still needs to be worked out, a college spokeswoman said.

“Anything can happen when it goes to the board,” spokeswoman Mary Ann Keating said. The college will have no other comment until the board acts, she said.

College trustees are scheduled to meet Sept. 24, and the union has tentatively set a Sept. 25 ratification vote.

Contract talks began late last year and reached an impasse in June, Widman said.

The union represents 325 full-time and 425 part-time faculty, librarians, counselors, and other certified employees at El Camino College.