Faculty Voice Newsletter: May 2018: Negotiations Update

by Karl Ewald

I wanted to give you a quick update on negotiations as we approach the end of the year. As you are probably well aware, the governor’s January budget proposal included some significant changes to the funding formula for California’s Community Colleges. Without getting too deep into specifics, these changes, as proposed in January, would leave Cabrillo in a “hold harmless” position where our 2018-19 funding would be held at 2017-18 levels. While there have been significant efforts to modify the proposed funding formula by CFT, FACCC, the Chancellor’s Office’s CEO Funding Formula Workgroup, and many others, we find ourselves in May with tremendous ambiguity on what Cabrillo’s funding may look like next year. The May revise was released this morning and it provides more clarity around the “hold harmless” provisions and changes to the January funding model. That said, there may be additional tweaks and changes as discussion continues in Sacramento through June.

All this is to say that we have not reached an agreement around compensation at this point in time. We continue to have a healthy working relationship with the District team. Naturally, we don’t see eye-to-eye on every issue, but I want to emphasize that reaching this point in the year without an agreement on compensation is much more related to the ambiguity of the state budget as opposed to any dynamic at the table. We have a couple more negotiations meetings this semester. If needed, we’ll try to continue negotiations through the summer. In any case, we will keep you updated as new information becomes available. 

With respect to medical benefits, the most recent update to the benefits committee indicated a 1.1% increase in total costs for 2018-19 which would be shared between the district and employee.

We are still wrapping up discussions on some other topics as well:

  • Implementation of SB 1379, the adjunct seniority bill
  • Implementation of AB 119, the access to orientation bill
  • Section 13.2, initial placement
  • Section 7.6, CCFT rights