Dear Colleagues,
As you know, circumstances dictated by the COVID-19 pandemic forced us to delay the negotiations that were in process when the campus shut down in March. We were not able to resume talks with the college until June. Since then, our discussions have been productive, but the college’s claims of financial hardship continue to pose significant challenges.
Throughout the negotiations, we have been fighting to achieve three primary goals:
- Protecting jobs for all our members
- Maintaining our health care
- Protecting our contract
While negotiations are ongoing and we therefore do not yet have a successor agreement to submit for your ratification, we can report some interim successes:
- All faculty members on probationary lines have received their reappointment letters;
- We fought, negotiated for, and retained the reassigned time for the Academic Senate Executive Committee, which would otherwise have expired with our current contract;
- We fought to have faculty voices represented on the Reinventing Task Force to help ensure the health and safety of our members as the campus reopens.
We know these successes, important as they are, are not enough. The college’s financial challenges—declining enrollment, chronic underfunding by the state, the budgetary pressures created by the COVID-19 pandemic—may be real, but we should not be made to bear the brunt of it. That’s why we’re still fighting for a contract that is fair and just to all parties involved.
More negotiations meeting are scheduled in the coming weeks. We will keep you informed as we continue to make progress.
In Solidarity,
The NCCFT Negotiating Committee
Donna Hope, Acting President
Richard Newman, Secretary/Acting Vice President, Classroom Faculty
Dawn Smith, Vice President, Non-classroom/Professional Faculty
Caroline Falconetti, Treasurer
Noreen Lowey, Negotiator-at-Large
Phyllis Kurland, Negotiator-at-Large
5 Responses
Considering the budget problems and recent cuts it’s amazing that the faculty members on probationary lines were reappointed.
Great work!
Thank you for working so hard for our probationary lines!!
Thank you so much for your efforts and advocacy! We appreciate all of you.
Thank you for the time and effort you devote to the faculty.
I thought section 50 of the current contract which subscribes to the AAUP standards for Notice of Non-Reappointment protected our probationary faculty. I am not really understanding how probationary lines were in danger unless the College has formally claimed a financial exigency as indicated in section 48 of the current CBA and even then the College would have to reduce adjunct faculty first. Nevertheless, I do thank the current NCCFT Officers for anything they’ve done for us.