Following over a year of negotiating, the 2022-2025 tentative contract agreement between the El Camino College Federation of Teachers and district was ratified during the Oct. 16 Board of Trustees meeting.
Prior to the approval of this new contract the El Camino faculty had been working under an expired contract since Dec. 2022.
The new contract entails 12 sabbaticals per year instead of eight. Additionally, unpaid personal leave was extended from seven to nine days, severance pay was increased, and first year faculty salaries were increased by nine percent along with many other changes.
Communications Professor and Federation member Larry Leach explained the previous contract was approved in preparation for the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The district basically anticipated all of these fiscal challenges but it was discovered that those fiscal challenges that they anticipated weren’t the case.” Leach said.
According to Leach, the lack of these forecasted challenges left faculty tied to a contract that didn’t meet their needs, which helped spark their efforts for better working conditions.
“What the federation was fighting for this time, in terms of compensation, was to bring more parity between El Camino and some of the surrounding colleges that are similar to us,” Leach said.
Although the new contract was ratified, there are certain sections that will be reopened at a later date. Part-time healthcare is one of those sections.
Until Oct. 16, part-time faculty received a benefit of $75 per person, per semester for healthcare. With the new contract’s approval, part-time faculty now receive $3,300 per person, per semester.
However, according to English Professor and Communications Chair for the Federation of Teachers Shane Ochoa the state of California had a different proposal regarding part-time faculty healthcare.
“[The state of California] was going to give 100% reimbursement for part timers,” Ochoa said. “The district, for some reason, did not want that.”
According to the California Community Colleges Chancellors Office website colleges can receive up to 100% reimbursement for the cost of part-time healthcare, but they must meet certain requirements including offering healthcare to all part-time faculty and offering the same benefits to full timers and part timers.
Ochoa was one of many faculty members who were disconcerted with the previous working conditions.
“We were overtaxed trying to fight for dignity and a fair contract for faculty and everyone here, all workers at El Camino.” Ochoa said. “I feel the length of the process was [also] unnecessary.”
Although negotiations are not yet over, Ochoa is happy with the approval of the contract.
“I think it’s a great sign that our actions matter as a union,” Ochoa said. “I guess it’s time to breathe, but we also have to prepare for the next contract.”
After speaking to The Union, Vice President and Acting President for the El Camino College Board of Trustees Trisha Murakawa said she is happy to move forward and added that the main focus is now shifting toward enrollment.
“I hope that [faculty] will be happy, we were able to come to an agreement between our union and our district, so we can move forward,” Murakawa said. “The priorities for the next year are going to be on student enrollment and fiscal responsibility.”
With threats to the college’s overall budget as previously reported by The Union, El Camino must focus on increasing enrollment to avoid funding cuts.
“We are being paid for full-time equivalent students at a certain rate, except enrollment doesn’t reflect that,” Murakawa said. “It’s very complicated.”
With the tentative agreement now approved the district will now implement salary and hourly increases, new healthcare policies and “retroactive checks to make up the difference [of previous pay]” as stated on the Federation website.
