College Teachers Protest Stalemate in Contract Talks

Teachers at Ventura County’s community colleges have walked out of three staff meetings this week in protest of stalled contract negotiations, and faculty members say tempers at the colleges are close to the breaking point.

“Certainly, the word strike is starting to come up in my conversations with other faculty members,” said Barbara Hoffman, a spokeswoman for the local teachers union. “You can cut the tension with a knife. Morale is very poor.”

Hoffman added, however, that union members hope to exhaust every possibility for negotiation before resorting to a strike.

The teachers union and administrators at the Ventura County Community College District have been locked in a contract dispute since last March.

The American Federation of Teachers, which represents instructors at Moorpark, Oxnard and Ventura colleges, is demanding a 3% raise for the about 1,000 full-time and part-time faculty members. The teachers’ last raise was more than two years ago. The union is also seeking an extension of benefits to part-time faculty members.

At the least, faculty say, they would like a cost-of-living raise.

But district officials say even a cost-of-living adjustment would amount to about $1 million, money they say the district does not have. Administrators say they want to maintain current salaries and scale back faculty benefits--raising health insurance deductibles, for instance, from $50 to as much as $200.

Jerry Pauley, the district’s associate vice chancellor of personnel, said a compromise is not in sight. “Now, we’re kind of in limbo,” he said. “I’ve heard of these things going on for two years in some places.”

In an effort to jolt administrators into a sense of urgency, teachers at Ventura College on Wednesday voted to adjourn a library committee meeting just as the session got started, a faculty member said. On Thursday morning, faculty members attending a district-level administrative services council also adjourned that meeting as it began, Pauley said.

On Thursday afternoon, faculty members walked out of a joint meeting of the District Council of Student Services and the District Council for Instruction after the administrator chairing the meeting refused to consider a motion for adjournment, a faculty member said. The meeting continued without teachers present, Pauley said.

Board members and administrators said faculty members should reserve their protests for the negotiating table.

“We have every intention to continue negotiations with them in a formal negotiating process,” said Gregory P. Cole, the board’s president, “and we view any action they take outside that as unfortunate.”

George Arita, a biology teacher at Ventura College, said the problems have not affected his relationship with his students.

“But certainly, when I come out of the classroom and I have to cope with my supply problems and I look at my paycheck, it doesn’t make me happy, I can tell you that,” Arita said.

Arita said he doesn’t like disputes, and he hates strikes, but if it came down to a teacher walkout, he would not let other faculty members down. “If your back is up against the wall, you have to fight,” he said.

But if money has been tight at the district so far, it may be getting even tighter in the future. A letter that arrived on the chancellor’s desk Thursday from the state chancellor’s office warned that “news is not good” for the next fiscal year’s budget outlook.

The letter warns that since the state finance department is not predicting an economic recovery during 1994, college revenue projections for both the 1993-94 and 1994-95 budget years will be lower than expected earlier.

Cole said the state chancellor’s budget update letter shows how prudent the district has been in putting away reserve money and trying to cut expenses.

Union leaders say, however, that district officials always seem to find money when they think they need it.

“They’re paying more attention to . . . field hockey facilities than they are to their own faculty,” Hoffman said, referring to a field hockey stadium that is planned for Moorpark College.