Labor Updates

(Updated as of December 6, 2022) Tentative Agreement reached. 

AFT and the District have reached a Tentative Agreement on a salary settlement for all bargaining unit members, with both ongoing salary increases and one-time salary payments. The agreement includes: 

• An ongoing salary increase effective January 1, 2023. All adjunct/overload faculty salary schedules will receive a 5.50 percent ongoing increase, and all tenured/tenure-track faculty salary schedules will receive a 4.62 percent ongoing increase. 
• A one-time salary payment for the period of July 1, 2022 to December 31, 2022. All current adjunct/overload faculty members will receive a one-time, off-schedule payment equivalent to 5.50 percent of total earnings, and all current tenured/tenure-track faculty members will receive a one-time, off-schedule payment equivalent to 4.62 percent of total earnings. 

AFT described the agreement as providing a fair compensation increase, while continuing to narrow a pay parity discrepancy between adjunct and tenured/tenure-track faculty.  

AFT and the District will continue to work cooperatively towards agreement on salary equity, with the hope of having it in place in spring 2023.

(Updated as of February 22, 2022) Final agreement reached.

The District and AFT finalized a reopener agreement in December 2021, following negotiations over salary and benefits. The reopener took effect July 1, 2021, and negotiations took place between September and November 2021. AFT members ratified the joint agreement by a vote of more than 99% and the Governing Board approved it on December 14, 2021.  

The agreement calls for an overall 2.25% increase in pay, distributed among employees. Effective July 1, 2021, adjunct/overload salary schedules receive a 2.5% increase in pay, and tenured/tenure-track receive a 2.05% increase in pay, which computes to an average 2.25% increase.

The agreement also includes a one-time, off-schedule payment in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and changes in working conditions and work locations. Adjunct faculty will receive a payment of 2.5% of annual gross earnings. Tenured/tenure-track faculty will receive a payment of 2.05% based on annual earnings (again, averaging to 2.25% overall). Payments will be made as part of the February 2022 payroll.  

Additional items:  

• Effective June 1, 2022, department chair June 30 stipends will increase by 2.25%.

• Beginning July 1, 2021, the adjunct office hourly rate increased from $30 to $40/hour.  

• Employees will continue to be able to take COVID-19 sick leave without using personal sick leave through June 30, 2022.  

• Adjunct faculty members receiving a reduced workload through no fault of their own will maintain their priority of assignment (POA) protection level for 18 months beginning June 30, 2022.  

• The District will conduct a study comparing salary and benefits of AFT-represented positions against those comparable positions in the San Diego Community College District. 

• The District will commit to increasing the number of full-time faculty to 311 using additional revenue provided in the Governor’s budget specifically for full-time faculty, no later than September 1, 2023. 

(Updated as of August 8, 2022) No negotiations underway.

(Updated as of October 14, 2022) No negotiations are currently underway.

(Updated as of December 6, 2022) AA declares an impasse in successor (2022) negotiations.

AA notified the District on December 1, 2022, that negotiations for a successor contract (that would be effective beginning January 1, 2022) had reached an “impasse,” due to the parties having “a fundamental difference on the core economic issues” being discussed. AA stated that “further bargaining sessions will be futile.”  

AA’s unilateral declaration of impasse begins a formal legal process that will be facilitated by the Public Employment Relations Board (PERB). This process may involve state mediation services, attorneys, and fact-finding. It is not known how long the process may take.

The parties have negotiated through the summer and fall in an attempt to reach agreement on the AA contract that expired in December 2021. The District and AA had been negotiating wages and other issues for the 2022 calendar year and had not yet begun any substantive wage negotiations for the 2023 calendar year. 

At the last bargaining session on October 27, 2022, the District provided a comprehensive proposal related to wages, benefits, and working conditions. AA did not provide a counter proposal, and declared impasse.

(Updated as of February 22, 2022) Negotiations expected to begin soon.

The Administrators’ Association full contract expired as of the end of 2021, after three years. The Administrators’ Association and the District both introduced their initial proposal at the February 15, 2022 Governing Board meeting.

Negotiations are expected to begin soon on a new full contract, to reach a mutually beneficial agreement.

(Updated as of August 8, 2022) Negotiations underway.

The Administrators’ Association and the District are in negotiations, following expiration of the last full contract as of December 2021. The Administrators’ Association and the District have met in June, July and August 2022, and are planning additional meetings until a mutually beneficial settlement is reached.

The Administrators’ Association has presented proposals on the following items:

• Contract term
• Association rights
• Hours of work
• Compensation and hazard pay
• Bargaining unit member expenses
• Leave time
• Skills development and professional growth
• Remote work policy

The District has presented proposals on the following, which are contingent on benefits changes.

• Contract term
• Health benefits changes
• Compensation
• Vacations
• Skills development and professional growth

The District’s proposed health benefits changes mirror those approved by the California School Employees Association (CSEA), the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), and Confidential Employee groups. Proposed benefits changes effective January 1, 2023 include:

• An additional employee monthly cost to enroll in the United Healthcare HMO2 plan
• Elimination of the PPO plan
• Modest plan design changes
• Modifications of retiree benefits, including:
• The District will pay the full cost of Kaiser HMO, UHC HMO Network 1 plans or any District-offered lower cost plan for all retirees.
• The PPO plan will be discontinued for retirees, and care provided by a new provider. The District will work with VEBA and retirees on a one-on-one basis to transition to a new plan.
• Retirees with a spouse over age 65 shall be required to enroll their spouse in Medicare Part B.
• Retirees who opt out of coverage will receive a stipend.
• The retirement age for benefit eligibility will increase to 55 years old for PERS and the years of service required for eligibility will increase to 15 years.
• The retiree must retire from either STRS or PERS.
• All grandfathered employees will be subject to plan design and cost sharing changes.

Detailed comparisons of the District’s current and proposed benefits plans for Administrators’ Association members are available through these links:

• Comparison between current and proposed health benefits plans/options for AA
• California Schools VEBA UnitedHealthcare HMO Network Comparison by Provider Medical Group

(Updated as of October 14, 2022) Negotiations underway.

After holding regular meetings through the summer, the District offered a settlement package proposal to the Administrators’ Association (AA) on September 1 to immediately settle all negotiations. The last full contract between AA and the District expired in December 2021. The proposal called for adding salary steps for academic administrators and conducting a compensation/salary study for classified members, as well as benefits changes, among other items.

Here is a more detailed breakdown of some key components included in the settlement package proposal made by the District:

1. Additional salary steps
   1. The settlement proposal stemmed from the District’s commitment to achieving salary equity, and the Chancellor’s plan in 2021 to conduct salary equity studies for all groups and develop an initial funding plan. The District began in 2021 by conducting a salary study of Confidential Administrators compared to the San Diego Community College District (SDCCD), the only other multi-college district in the region, since the District experienced significant turnover in this area and the positions were considered to have the largest gaps in comparable salaries. At the time, the plan was to continue to negotiate salary equity studies with other employee groups using SDCCD as the primary point of comparison.
   2. Included in the settlement package proposal was the addition of four salary steps (for a total of nine) for the positions of Associate Dean, Dean, and Senior Dean at 3 percent increments (the percentage between steps) as of July 1, 2023. These additional steps were proposed for a few reasons. First, the Personnel Commission does not have jurisdiction over educational/academic employees. Second, in the compensation study comparing the District to SDCCD in 2021, the District found that the salary levels of Deans are higher in the first five steps and lower after that. The addition of the steps was contingent on AA accepting 2022 Benefits Plan Design Changes previously approved by AFT, CSEA and GCCCD confidential employee groups.

 

2. Compensation Study for all other AA members (The District was agreeable to either Option A or B below)
   1. Option A
      1. The settlement package proposal called for the District to conduct a compensation/salary study, comparing all AA classified positions with comparable positions in the SDCCD. The District planned to complete the study by April 2023.
      2. The study would look at job descriptions, qualifications and skills required in the position, educational and experience requirements, placement in organizational hierarchies, as well as minimum, median and maximum wages and longevity pay.
      3. Following the study, the parties would meet to negotiate implementation of the findings, focusing on the positions with the greatest wage disparities between the District and SDCCD. The parties would also jointly notify the Personnel Commission of an agreement reached for the District to conduct the study.
   2. Option B
      1. Under the second option, the parties would agree that the Personnel Commission should conduct a compensation study at some point in the future. The Commission’s recommendations then would go to the parties to negotiate.

 

3. Wage and Benefit Changes

Conditioned on the Association’s acceptance the benefits changes previously agreed to by all other GCCCD unions and employee groups, the District also proposed the following compensation changes:

1. 1. Increasing the salary schedule by 2.0% effective January 1, 2022.
   2. A one-time, off-schedule payment equivalent to 2.0% of an employee’s gross earnings.
   3. A one-time payment of $500 per employee in consideration of the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

4. TAs

The package proposal also included tentative agreements already reached at the table, including:

1. 1. Creation of a District Fringe Benefits Committee, serving in an advisory capacity, with two AA representatives.
   2. Hazard pay of a 1/1 compensation time for AA members who perform duties not in their classification that place the member in harm’s way. The members must be considered essential employees and must report to work for an event that has been declared a national emergency.
   3. Parental leave of five days for the birth of the child of the member, their spouse, or domestic partner. Leave must have been taken within 30 calendar days of the birth of the child.
   4. Skills development/professional growth included rolling the $500 allocation into the AA salary schedule as of June 30, 2023.

After much discussion between the parties, the AA negotiations team informed the District on September 13 that it would not agree to this settlement proposal.

As previously discussed by the parties at the table, negotiations will return to where they were left before the District’s September 1 settlement proposal was made. The next negotiations session is scheduled for October 27.

(Updated as of December 6, 2022). Negotiations underway.

CSEA and the District are beginning negotiations on a contract that is scheduled to expire at the end of December 2022. The next negotiation session is planned for Thursday, December 8, 2022. 

The District is looking forward to a productive round of negotiations. 

(Updated as of February 22, 2022) Negotiations remain underway.

Negotiations over CSEA’s current reopener continue, after starting in March 2021. Part of a three-year contract that expires December 31, 2022, the reopener covers salaries and benefits, as well as up to two articles of the full contract selected by each party. The next bargaining session is expected to take place February 24, 2022.

The District’s January 14, 2022, wage proposal to CSEA includes a 2% on-schedule (ongoing) wage increase and a 2% one-time off-schedule increase, that is contingent on CSEA accepting the same changes to health and welfare benefits (to begin January 1, 2023, for CSEA members) that the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and Meet and Confer groups accepted in 2020, effective January 1, 2021. 

The 2% proposed on-schedule wage increase for CSEA would cost the District more than the 2.25% average pay increase accepted by AFT in fall 2021. That’s because CSEA’s step & column cost increases, with longevity, are proportionately higher compared to those of AFT.

Note that the higher costs for CSEA’s health benefits for 2021 and 2022 amount to about 1.5% more each year in total compensation than AFT and Meet & Confer Groups, who agreed to the lower-cost plans. A comparison of the different health benefits plans will be provided in the next update.

(Updated as of May 11, 2022) Final agreement reached.

The District and CSEA finalized a reopener agreement, which was approved by the Governing Board in May 2022. This agreement included updates to salaries and benefits.

Part of a three-year contract that expires December 31, 2022, the reopener agreement includes the following salary increases:

• A 2% on-schedule wage increase (ongoing) in pay effective July 1, 2022.
• A 2% one-time off-schedule increase of the employee’s annual gross earnings.
• A $500 one-time, off-schedule payment in consideration of the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and addressing changes in working conditions and work location.

The agreement also includes the same changes to health benefits that the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and Meet and Confer groups accepted in 2020, effective January 1, 2021. The higher health benefits costs to the District for 2021 and 2022 represented about 1.5% more each year in total compensation for CSEA members than the AFT and Meet and Confer groups, who agreed to lower-cost plans in prior years. Benefits changes effective January 1, 2023 include:

• An additional employee monthly cost to enroll in the United Healthcare HMO2 plan
• Modest plan design changes
• Elimination of the PPO plan
• Modifications of retiree benefits, including:
• The District will pay the full cost of Kaiser HMO, UHC HMO Network 1 plans or any District-offered lower cost plan for all retirees.
• The PPO plan will be discontinued for retirees, and care provided by a new provider. The District will work with VEBA and retirees on a one-on-one basis to transition to a new plan.
• Retirees with a spouse over age 65 shall be required to enroll their spouse in Medicare Part B.
• Retirees who opt out of coverage will receive a stipend.
• The retirement age for benefit eligibility will increase to 55 years old for PERS and the years of service required for eligibility will increase to 15 years.
• The retiree must retire from either STRS or PERS.
• All grandfathered employees will be subject to plan design and cost sharing changes.

Detailed comparisons of the District’s new benefits plans are available through these links:

• Comparison between current and approved health benefits plans/options for CSEA
• California Schools VEBA UnitedHealthcare HMO Network Comparison by Provider Medical Group

(Updated as of October 14, 2022) Negotiations are expected to begin shortly. 

Both the District and CSEA presented (sunshined) initial proposals at the September Governing Board Meeting.

No previous updates.