The faculty at Citrus College has been working with expired contracts from the district since December. Their contract has been in the negotiation process since last Jan.
A parallel negotiation is underway for an emergency memorandum of understanding, an agreement made outside of contract negotiations for pressing issues, as a result of the faculty having to work from home. On Feb. 22, the district and the faculty association settled the MOU for the spring semester.
“We have agreed to a number of things, including how faculty evaluations are going to proceed and a small stipend for faculty,” Dave Brown, faculty bargaining chair, and automotive tech professor said in a phone interview.
Chemistry professor David Ryba said the Citrus College Faculty Association negotiators requested a detailed account of the Federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act money before agreeing to set a date to continue the negotiations.
Until their conditions are met, no time and date for a meeting will be set. No date and time have been set as of today.
Director of Human Resources Robert Sammis, the district’s chief negotiator, said he hopes the next round of negotiations comes to an agreement so the union and the district do not end up at an impasse.
In previous years, an impasse has resulted in the faculty picketing to receive raises and other working conditions they did not receive in the mediation process.
“I am deeply disturbed by the level of respect for faculty that I have seen from the district,” Jesus Gutierrez, a mathematics professor, said in an email interview. “In our last contract negotiation, not this negotiation cycle, we had to picket to just see a temporary raise. A temporary raise that is now expired since we refused to approve the last, best and final offer.”
The district extended a contract offer in December and the faculty voted against it by a 2-1 margin. As of today, the current proposed contract from the district provides no raises for the next three years and does not allow the faculty union an opportunity to negotiate for raises for the next two years.
“Faculty is not insisting on more money; they just did not want to agree to not talk about it,” Brown said. “What we wanted was a re-opener so that we would be able to talk about potential raises in future years.”
