A tentative agreement over a new contract for the Long Beach City College Faculty Association (LBCCFA) has been reached after five months of working on the old contract according to the negotiating team.
Veronica Alvarez, a negotiating team member, confirmed through an email sent by Jeffery Sabol, another negotiating team member, the details that were agreed upon.
“This is a really good beginning and we are pretty happy,” Alvarez said. “Feedback (from the faculty) is appreciative.”
The salary agreement was a raise which is equal to the cost of living adjustment (COLA) for all three years of the length of the contract.
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.
Other significant details that were agreed to were increased stipends for department heads and lab hours will be compensated 100%.
As of now, professors are paid 90% of the money they make for their lab hours under the current contract.
Department heads will receive more money on top of their salary because of the extra responsibilities they take on as department heads.
This new contract has been one of the more contentious contract negotiations in recent years.
From June 9 until Sept. 22, negotiations had been paused.
On Oct. 18, the LBCCFA protested at a Board of Trustee meeting over the lack of a contract. The union showed up in red shirts and signs saying “110 days without a contract.”
On Sept. 22, Alvarez shared an email to faculty stating that “positive progress has been made since negotiations resumed.”
The union did not protest after that at the next Board of Trustees meeting held on Nov. 8.
Most of the speakers for the union gave up their time to talk at the meeting to other speakers.
Alvarez explained the faculty will get to vote on whether or not the faculty accepts the terms of the new contract in the coming weeks.