From: Lewis Long
Sent: Wednesday, February 02, 2005 11:51 AM

Subject: Faculty Contract Update

Colleagues,

I have been receiving many questions about the status of the contract.Lee Haggerty, our Chief Negotiator, and I are working on a
newsletter, which should be ready next week, to explain in detail the status of negotiations, and the outstanding features of the contract.However, I wanted to send out a brief update to let everyone know how things stand.

The District and the Faculty Association have reached an agreement in principle about the issues in the contract.In the sense that we are trying to reach agreement about the general concepts and issues in the contract, negotiations have indeed concluded.

However, many of the details and much of the language that articulates this agreement must still be worked out.The Faculty Master Agreement, or contract,is an extremely complex and lengthy legal document which will govern every aspect of the employment of every existing and new faculty member--both full and part-time--for the next three years (actually, the next two and a half years, since it will be retroactive to July 1, 2004). Because it's a legal document, it's important that its language be complete, clear and accurate, with no errors or omissions that would result in misunderstandings, inequities, or injustices later.Many grievances have been filed, and many faculty have suffered, as the result of a simple misplaced comma.The Faculty Association Negotiating Team and the Executive Committee would much rather have a good, complete contract, than a quick, flawed one.Please be aware that the Negotiating Team places the highest importance on the good of the whole faculty, and after a long and difficult three years, will not sacrifice that good for mere expediency.

With the consciousness of the importance of a well written contract, the Negotiating Team, with the assistance of the Executive
Committee, is now spending many hours--meeting several times each week, for several hours each time--going over the language of the contract, checking it for problems or gaps, getting it ready to present to the faculty for review and an eventual vote, and then to the Board of Trustees for adoption and implementation.

We hope to have the contract ready to present to the faculty in two meetings, one on each campus, later this month.At that time, we will have the complete, finished document containing the proposed contract available for review on the web.Ten days after the meetings, according to the Faculty Association by-laws, we will conduct a vote of the Faculty Association membership to ratify the proposed contract. We are looking into an on-line voting system, similar to the one used by the IVC Academic Senate for its last officer and by-laws elections, to conduct the vote in a fair and efficient manner.We anticipate that we will need a five-day period to complete the vote.At the conclusion of the voting period, if the membership ratifies the proposed contract, we will present it to the Board of Trustees for their acceptance, and if they vote to accept it, implementation by the District.

It is possible that we may be able to conclude this process by the February 28th meeting of the Board.However, if we need a longer period to ensure a complete and well written contract, it may take a bit longer. The Board may be willing to hold a special session early in March for the adoption of the contract, if necessary.

Please look for the more detailed newsletter early next week, and plan to attend the faculty meetings later in the month, during which we will present in detail the proposed contract.

Thanks,
Lewis

_________________________
Lewis J. Long
President
SOCCCD Faculty Association
28000 Marguerite Parkway
Mission Viejo, California92692
(949) 451-5477
llong@ivc.edu