AFT,
Local 212’s
First VIRTUAL Coordination Day
January 16th, 2007
They may try to keep us apart
They may not want to hear us
but…
We will not let the Administration keep
us from communicating with our members!
Text from the "Virtual
Coordination Day" Video (above)
Welcome back to another semester.
I would have preferred to greet you in
person but, the administration canceled Coordination Day
because it does not want the entire faculty to meet.
Apparently the same administration that
wants to cut your benefits while the President increases
his own, does not have the courage to face the faculty,
counselors and staff and certainly does not want your union
leadership to speak directly to you.
So welcome to MATC’s first virtual
Coordination Day!
Despite the administration’s attempt
to censor us, we all know that we are working without a
contract a year and half after we began negotiations.
The administration began bargaining by
presenting over 60 take-a-ways from the faculty, 43 from
the paraprofessionals and 30 from the part-time faculty.
Until this past summer, there was no movement
at all by the college. After meeting with the state mediator
for several sessions, the administration finally reduced
the number of issues, although there were still significant
take-a-ways left on the table.
During these entire negotiations, Local
212’s teams have proposed only a limited number of
issues, so the vast majority of the time was spent discussing
the administration’s many take-a-ways.
The administration has repeatedly said
that health insurance was its number one priority, and it
demanded that employees pay more for our health insurance.
As we have reported, we are prepared to
pay more, but it is critical that it be done in a way that
provides incentives to reduce usage, thus cutting overall
expenditures and minimizing insurance increases. All credible
studies point to the wisdom of this approach.
In this regard, Labor Relations Director
Frank Shansky took part in weeks of meetings in 2005 with
District representatives and helped identify three areas
of savings that would have saved the college and taxpayers
millions of dollars while effectively reducing health care
utilization.
Incredibly, the college did not take us up on trying to
implement these savings plans as soon as possible. It showed
no urgency in attempting to recover these millions of dollars
in savings, thus demonstrating that reaching an agreement
was not its real goal, nor was saving money.
The District’s only plan to deal
with rising health care costs has been to state it wanted
employees to pay a percent of the health insurance premiums
over and above the costs our members already pay.
Despite the overwhelming evidence that paying on premium
actually increases health care utilization and costs, and
again, despite the fact that the research is unanimous in
this regard, we made a number of proposals that would have
required our members to pay more.
Every time we made a proposal in one of the meetings, the
District’s representatives seemed interested and made
verbal counter-proposals. The meetings would end with the
District saying it would come back with some kind of counter-proposal.
However, until the week before X-mas, they never once actually
presented a counter proposal. Instead, each time they returned
with their original proposal, as if the previous discussion
had never taken place!
Finally after we addressed the Board about
the administration’s failure to engage in constructive
bargaining, we received a real proposal on December 20.
Our teams immediately met and drafted a counter offer that
would increase the amount we pay for healthcare. But it
would do so in a way that is fair to our members and that
will help MATC reduce health cost increases.
Remember, our health care agreement does
not expire until June 30, 2007. Yet one year ago we offered
to open up our health care 18 months early in order to capture
savings. Instead of taking us up on this offer, the administration
has preferred attacking employees to politicians and the
media by releasing inaccurate salary figures!
In the fall Dr. Cole received a very
generous contract- lifetime health benefits after 6 years,
an over 8% salary hike and numerous other benefits increases.
Our poster-Got Contract? Dr. Cole Does! says it all!
You have a right to be outraged at this
double standard – that MATC’s CEO deserves more
and more salary and benefits while the faculty, counselors
and staff who actually work with our students deserve less.
The New York Times recently wrote that CEO’s who cash
in pension and stock options while gutting their employee’s
pensions had lost the moral high ground. This is sadly the
case at MATC.
Our request is simple and just-that the
administration work with us to achieve a voluntary settlement
that is fair; a settlement that sends a message that all
employees are valued, not just those at the top.
Let me be clear. Local 212 has acted responsibly.
Our proposals have been very modest and would save the college
and taxpayers money.
But we will not agree to changes that
undermine the educational quality of this great technical
college nor will be allow the administration to destroy
what previous generations of MATC faculty and staff have
worked so hard for. We and MATC stand on their broad shoulders.
On the political front I have better news.
With the re-election of Governor Doyle and a Democratic
majority in the Senate, attempts to gut our funding through
misguided property tax freezes will not be on the agenda.
At the same time because our state aid has dropped by more
than 50% over the last 15 years we need to continue to press
for increases if this college is to train the skilled and
technical workers our state’s economy needs!
It is gratifying that business and community
leaders have finally recognized that the biggest obstacle
to economic prosperity in the state is a shortage of skilled
workers. The solution, of course, is to invest in MATC and
its faculty and staff.
Now that business and community
leaders have recognized the important role we play in this
state, perhaps Dr. Cole will acknowledge it as well. We
are the solution to the state’s labor shortage. More
importantly we are the last and best hope for those in our
community who have the least. So welcome back we have important
educational work to do and a contract to settle. Let’s
get to work on both!
