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by Saodat Aziskhanova, CSEA President |
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CSEA Recap of the Year This is the final issue of Chaparral for the 2006-2007 academic year, and it is a time to revisit the past year. There were many changes that impacted classified staff, including:
I am sure you all agree that it was a year of challenges. We welcomed our new Superintendent/President, Dr. Audre Levy, and Vice President Dr. Dawn Lindsay, as well as the election to the Board of Trustees of not-so-new-to-all-of-us Mr. Tony Tartaglia, Past President of the Foundation, and Dr. Vahe Peroomian. Last June we had almost 60 employees, including administrators, faculty and staff, retiring after many years of service to the college. A number of classified employees were promoted to classified manager and confidential positions including: Nidal Kobaissi, Alen Andriassian, Aida Avanousian, Barbara Jordan, Heather Glenn, Ani Keshishian, Gordon Lui and Hasmik Sarkissian. Many classified employees were promoted to higher-range positions: Tracy Adams, Christine Reiner, Sarah Black, Frankie Strong and Nancy Yaldizian. We have new classified employees who were hired during this year; however, we still need many more new hires, especially custodial staff with the two new buildings opening in fall. With Nidal Kobaissi stepping down from the CSEA presidency last August, the CSEA Executive Board had three vacancies. I am excited to welcome new officers elected at the last chapter meeting: Hoover Zariani—2nd Vice President, Margaret Nadir—Treasurer, and Sarah Black—Secretary. Thanks go to Abe Barakat (1st Vice President), Merrilee Ahaus (Chief Job Steward), Sandra Dale (Political Action Coordinator) and Armenuhi Andzhu (Public Relations Officer), who helped me to improve CSEA procedures during this year while we were short on officers. We completed our negotiations with the District back in March and our new contract for 2006-2009 will be available shortly on the CSEA and Human Resources websites. The negotiation team kept classified employees informed as bargaining progressed. We still have unfinished business to discuss with the District and will be returning for re-openers in August and September. In a way, negotiations never end. Currently, the CSEA negotiations team is working on a survey that will be distributed soon to all classified for re-openers. Starting in May, Matthew Gentile will have a “Labor Relations Representative Corner” in our chapter newsletter and will highlight and explain an article of our contract each month. Classified employees had a retreat in Malibu during spring break. This was the return of an event we lost during the financial crisis back in 2003. The event was very successful, and planning has already started for next year’s retreat. The actions of the Board of Trustees often impact our contract or other employees’ rights and benefits. We actively participated in the election of our trustees in April. CSEA endorsed the two incumbents and worked on the campaign with both candidates. As I
mentioned, this is the final issue of the newsletter for this
academic year. I would like to take this opportunity to thank
outgoing Guild President Mike Allen and Academic Senate President
Dr. Sid Kolpas for their support from the first day I became CSEA
President. I would also like to congratulate John Queen and Gordon
Alexandre, incoming leaders of the Academic Senate and Guild,
respectively. I am looking forward to working with both of you!
Visit our chapter website: www.glendale.edu/csea |
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