Contracts: Talks at El Camino College

My compliments to James Benning for his insightful coverage over the past several months of contract negotiations at El Camino College.

As he captured in his summary article of our settlement, the salary agreement is far from an equitable one. Although 3.25% may seem quite generous at first glance, 1.25% of that amount was made possible by a pay cut for those faculty who teach summer school. Even after factoring the 3.25% into the salary schedule, the fact of the matter is that the more one teaches summer classes the less one makes relative to past teaching pay practice, to the point where after three years of teaching summer school classes a faculty member actually loses money on the deal. In short, the only way to get the full 3.25% salary increase is not to teach summer school at all.

My overriding fear, and one shared by most faculty, is that district management will continue its long-discredited explanation of the root cause of El Camino College’s fiscal plight. “Dwindling funds from the state” remains the only lame excuse the district can produce to absolve itself for its own fiscal mismanagement as well as spending priorities that do not support El Camino College’s basic mission: offering a quality instructional program designed to meet the educational needs of our students.

The Federation of Teachers certainly is aware of the shrinking support from Sacramento and diminished property tax revenues available to the college. What is conveniently ignored by management is its own incompetent class scheduling decisions last year (a $700,000 “oops”); hiring two new administrators ($200,000) while filling only four of more than 30 vacant full-time faculty positions and canceling almost 200 classes this past semester; allowing full health benefits for a part-time Board of Trustees member but none for part-time faculty, and providing a handsome 8% compensation increase for a top administrator while claiming poverty as its excuse for refusing any faculty salary increase for three years.

The faculty deserves that 3.25% pay increase, but with no pay cut for teaching summer classes.

LANCE WIDMAN

Hermosa Beach

Widman is president of the El Camino College Federation of Teachers .