Southeast/Long Beach : College Says It Can’t Afford Raises

The Board of Trustees at Compton Community College voted in higher wages for faculty members earlier this year, but it seems it didn’t get its math right.

A labor contract for 1994-95 approved in February would have granted teachers and professors higher wages and less time between raises, but administrators now say the college cannot afford the terms agreed upon.

College President Byron Skinner says his business staff originally advised him that it would cost $175,000 to grant faculty members retroactive pay raises from 1994 through the end of this year, but a second calculation July 27--two days before the raises were to go into effect--came to $319,000.

Faculty members waiting to get their raises are disgruntled.

“They should have gotten the correct information so that they could have correct figures before ratifying the contract,” said James Johnson, who has taught English at the college for 25 years and is co-president of the Compton Community College Federation of Employees.

The Board of Trustees wants to renegotiate the contract, but teachers and professors want to hold to the agreement.

The union recently filed an unfair labor practices complaint with the Public Employees Relations Board and is trying to obtain a court injunction that will force the trustees to abide by the contract.