CHAPARRAL

Part-timers Win Some and Lose a Lot

Phyllis Eckler,
2nd Vice President,
GCC Guild

As the ranks of part-timers at GCC begin to thin due to the community college budget crisis, there are some glimmers of hope on the employment horizon. A rather compromised rehire rights agreement has been hammered out between the GCC Guild and the district. Many adjuncts feel frustrated that seniority rights were not granted and that not all part-timers will gain these rights of rehire (or even be able to retain them). However the district and the division chairs also lost some ground by giving up complete freedom over who gets first crack at future assignments, and it will also give those part-timers on the rehire list some sense of security when it comes to retaining their jobs during acute layoffs. For more information on the details of this agreement (which has yet to be voted on by the membership) please go to www.glendale.cc.ca.us/guild/rehire_rights.htm.

  The other area that is being looked at closely around the state is the ubiquitous "60 Percent Law." This refers to a section of the Education Code that allows community college districts to hire part-timers to work up to 60 percent of a full-timer's teaching load without giving them a tenure-track contract. This statute was put in place to prevent districts from abusing a source of cheap labor while denying workers benefits and security. Of course as we all know this is not at all what happened.

  Districts have continually increased the percentage of part-time faculty while denying these workers enough teaching hours to make a decent living.

  Meanwhile this contingent labor pool is forced to drive from one end of a region to another in order to assemble enough working hours to stay in the teaching field. Many part-time groups such as the California Part-time Faculty Association (CPFA), our own California Federation of Teachers (CFT) and the Faculty Association of California Community Colleges (FACCC) are studying ways of either increasing the 60 percent limit to 74 percent (or greater) and/or allowing part-timers to teach 60 percent at each college rather than within an entire district (which may have as many as nine different colleges within its boundaries).

   Another area that is being carefully studied is how retirement benefits for part-timers are being calculated under the STRS Defined Benefit plan.   While there have been many recent improvements that benefit new STRS DB enrollees, those who have been members of this plan for years were getting hurt by these newer methods of pension calculation. AB 1586 is a bill that is working its way through the legislature, and it will address this unfairness as it affects soon-to-retire adjuncts. Please write letters of support  or e-mails to legislators. More information on this bill and how to contact your legislator is available at www.faccc.org under "Legislation and Advocacy."

  Of course the most critical issue facing part-timers is the California state budget crisis. Its effect on district budgets, leading to declining student populations, will be felt most acutely by part-time faculty. As class sections are slashed, those without full-time contracts will be the first to go. We must all fight this decimation of the community college system. The legislature and the governor are supporting high student fees while at the same time planning on sending even less funding, from this new source of revenue, back to the local districts. We must raise our voices against this and let our students know what is coming so they can fight these budget plans as well.

Please send any questions or comments regarding this column to <peckler@glendale.edu> &

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