The part time and full time faculty displayed their frustration in working without a contract for over 110 days through a protest, shouting chants like “show us respect” and “let us speak” at the latest board of trustees meeting.
“The (board) president has not responded to my calls, has not responded to my emails. If you are offended, we have to keep moving,” said Suzanne Engelhardt, Long Beach City College Faculty Association president.
Englhardt said they have discussed the matter personally, but did not provide details on the lack of communication between her and Board of Trustee President Herlinda Chico.
Englehardt claimed she received a text saying “bad tactics” the same night from one of the trustees, but did not name the trustee.
Englehardt discussed how the union’s way of negotiation has changed from a lead negotiator directing the conversation, a single person that discusses all the wants of the union, to negotiations being led by a committee.
Englehardt explained that she has multiple people doing the research for each point of the new contract, the person doing the research explains their own findings to negotiate, rather than Engelhardt speaking on behalf of the whole union.
Engelhardt claimed that his committee led approach keeps the faculty more engaged and allows different voices to be heard.
“We do so much for social justice, why not at the negotiation table? The other side is focusing on it. (They ask) questions like ‘who do I talk to?’ In my opinion, they made it an obstacle. You are hearing what you want from different voices,” said Engelhardt.
The faculty is currently in negotiations over both the part time contract and full time contract after negotiations had stalled over summer.
The contract offered to the LBCCFA (full time faculty union) was a cost of living adjustment (COLA) for the first year, and COLA minus one percent for the next two years which the union refused to accept. COLA is a number that accounts for inflation for living a certain standard of living.
The college receives the amount of money that COLA accounts for, which has raised to 8.22% according to the California Department of Education, but does not need to use the money for faculty salaries.
The full time faculty’s main points in the new contract are full COLA for all three years. They are asking for lecture and lab parity, meaning a professor who teaches a lab gets paid full salary for the time spent in the lab.
As of the current contract, they are only paid 90% of the money they make for their lab hours. Lastly, faculty called for increased department head compensation. This pays the department head more for the work they do in that position alongside their regular position.
“The faculty is standing their ground, holding fast to the needs that they have shared. It’s not just salary, it’s working conditions,” said Veronica Alvarez, a member of the negotiation team and faculty development coordinator.
The last few years have shown labor forces such as the writers, actors and recently auto workers strike for their needs and receive general public support.
“Other industries have won their labor protest. We want attractive salaries to attract young professors. Los Angeles community colleges had a significant raise and it surprised me we aren’t neck and neck,” said Maragaret Shanon, who’s worked at LBCC for over 23 years.
The faculty were allotted 20 minutes of time to speak on topics that are on the agenda. It was not not enough time for all faculty to give their prepared statements.
Faculty asked for the time for public comments without topic to be moved from the end of the meeting to directly after the topical public comments to allow themselves another 20 minutes to speak. The faculty exited the room booing and continued chanting outside after their request was unmet. Trustee Sunny Zia motioned to vote after they exited, but no one seconded the motion, and the meeting continued.
The faculty reentered the meeting to honor the new faculty hires that were being presented.
“I will say it would have been an easier accumulation if we weren’t still going through negotiations after 110 days,” said Vanna Nauk, newly hired associate ethnic studies professor.
Trustee Uduak-Joe Ntuk declined an interview when asked after the closed session portion of the meeting.
Reports from multiple faculty members followed the introduction of the new faculty members.
“We are only paid to teach, we are not compensated for office hours, grading or any non- instructional hours. We do not have health care benefits even though the state is providing funds for said health care benefits, it will cost the district nothing to implement them,” Crystal Huckabee, Certificated Hourly Instructors union president and part time faculty said.
“We insist on a living wage for part timers for all the work that they do, not just instructional work, all of the work. We ask that you show us that we belong on campus. We ask that you give us a living wage, pay us for the work that we do, provide us with health care benefits and I’ll have to insist that we receive respect,” said Huckabee.
The faculty exited the room shortly after the announcements.