Renton Federation of Teachers, Local 3914
General Membership Meeting
September 17, 2014
This meeting was called to order by President Gary Neill at 11:30 am.
Members present:
DeEtta Burrell Cheryl Stover Motoko Nakazawa-Hewitt
Ha Nguyen Eugene Shen Robert Hollahb
Victoria Wang Sarah Zugschwerdt Darlene Ripley
Helen Shampain Barbara Gutierrez Brad Slayton
Jim Mellon Brian Thompson John Falconer
Holly Jackson J. La Hart Sarah Redd
Paul Baeder Michele Lesmeister Maggie Patton
Michael McBride Simone Terrell Martha Chamberlin
AJ Serba Mike Fobes Richelle Spence
Gary Neill Martin Paquette Kathleen Higgins
Gary West Mike Biell Laura Staley
LynnDee Spencer
Concerns about increasing numbers of administrative positions were discussed.
· Gary presented a graph showing that since 1998, administrative exempt positions have doubled while faculty numbers have declined
· We have one of the highest administrative percentages of all community colleges eligible for the Aspen award
The upcoming contract negotiations were discussed.
· Rick Geist introduced the negotiation team, which consists of him, Sheila May-Farley, Sarah Redd, Cheryl Stover, Gary Neill, DeEtta Burrell, and an AFT-WA representative
· Rick gave a general overview of the negotiations. We plan to write our proposed contract language before beginning and need to narrow the number of topics to around a dozen. We need to check RCWs and get supporting documentation to back up our cause. We want to be as open as possible with the general membership but need to be sensitive. We are limited to 32 hours of negotiation to save time and money. Following negotiations, RFT will vote on the new contract as a whole package.
· Rick encouraged members to brainstorm ideas for changes to the contract. He asked members to familiarize themselves with their contractual rights and suggest changes to specific articles and sections. If they can back up their ideas with supporting evidence or provide example language from other colleges’ collective bargaining agreements, it will save a lot of time. We passed around a form where members could give input. We will also be soliciting input via a survey using a new tool from AFT.
· Our self-imposed deadline for identifying contract issues is 10/17. The negotiation team will receive training from AFT-WA on 10/18.
Comments and Concerns:
Members discussed concerns that they had provided their home e-mails to RFT multiple times but never received anything at those e-mails from RFT. Merrilee Miron from AFT-WA expressed concern that surveys should never go to RTC e-mails. Rick said that any member could send their home e-mail to him at dragonweld@live.com.
Action Item: Sarah will send a google drive spreadsheet to RFT showing whose home e-mails we have, and will begin sending news and updates to members’ home e-mails.
Simone is having trouble getting an accurate list of new faculty from HR. She asked for package that new employees receive from HR, and there’s nothing about the union in these documents.
Action Item: Simone and Gary will follow up with Leslie Hogan at HR and file a grievance if an accurate list is not provided by the next payroll date.
Merrilee mentioned that Green River Community College is running a contract campaign involving students in order to keep faculty issues visible to their administration. There was discussion about having one day per week when RTC employees and students could all wear their AFT T-shirts.
Some current issues were discussed:
· Department meetings should not be happening during employee lunch breaks or after work hours.
· Many URLs and program descriptions are out of date on the new RTC website, making it difficult to prepare Canvas courses in time
Adjourned 1:30 pm.
Respectfully Submitted,
Sarah Redd