General Membership meeting May 9, 2008 10:00 AM

Terry Bilderback informed us that Linda DeMoe had a heart attack on May 8.  She would be in St. Mary’s hospital for a few days.  [to the best of my knowledge, she returned home on Monday May 12. Kh]

Terry thanked Tim Stanton for the communications e-mails he has been sending out.  She also thanked Judy Richardson for work on the website.  To view it,  go to s:public\temp\bilderback\union\index.html

Terry informed us that dues would increase for UTCC, WEAC, and NEA.  As a result, the withholding amount from our checks will also increase for the new school year.  [Each pay period, during the school year, a small amount of our paychecks is withheld to pay our union membership dues.  Amounts over a certain amount of gross are tax deductible.]

The UTCC will be running summer academy for folks to learn about the union and how to get involved.  UTCC reimburses members for registration.

Leigh Barker, UTCC director, encouraged retirees to sign up for WEAC retired since it is cheaper to sign up before you retire. 

She also indicated that since this is an election year, there will be a lot of talk about supporting candidates who support education. 

She also told us of a new side agreement with management on scheduling that will come in the fall. 

The course designer issue was discussed.  The college paid Sungaard to help us with course designers, but the faculty reported that their help was not what we were looking for.  The college then terminated that work from Sungaard and is hiring a 50% instructional designer from the faculty ranks. 

Cathy Peck reported on negotiations.  We have some settlements on minor issues.  Personal and sick leave, retirees hiring will be paid hourly salary at cell divided by 1330.  This is about $60 per hour instead of $30 per hour adjunct rate and $100 per hour faculty rate.  The other issue that was clarified was that adjunct have a right to build load up to 90%.

The big issues: salary, insurance and workload haven’t made any progress.  The earliest ratification vote will be in the fall.  Make sure you check your e-mail for survey information if the negotiations team needs help with knowing what we want.

The 2005-2008 contract will be in force until the new contract is ratified.  You will get your step salary bump on July 1.

Concerning insurance, an actuary has determined that Security Health Plan is charging a fair amount.  The proposal to the benefits committee was to have two tiers.  1 same as present, 2 a higher deductible that is paid by the college or if not used returned to a regulated health savings account.

The grievance report was that management agreed that block scheduling was not the usual method of scheduling, The also agreed to post work for several positions that had not been posted.  The grievance committee also worked out clarification that personal time can be ta ken in 1 hour increments.  There are still situations with which there is no agreement.  Concerning University transfer, we are going to arbitration in 2 weeks [that arbitration was not held since an agreement was reached that allowed faculty to either receive compensation for course work needed or exemption for a limited number of courses per area.  Both methods have some circumstances that limit their application.  For further information, see the e-mail from Pat Griffith dated May 22.]  We also have no agreement on Department Chair/ Program Director workload.  One way we can help is to just quit doing extra duties like hiring adjunct, copyright check, graduate employment survey and such like.  Finally, the live meeting compensation grievance continues with no agreement.

The Union Professional Development Committee UPDC (Barb Hoffman and Kevin Hulke) reported that they are looking for ideas of what you want them to do in the fall.  The will be recruiting members for their committee.  The UPDC is responsible for helping faculty members get their questions answered, mentoring new members in the union, and promoting professional education through sessions such as Brownbag lunches and Chair share meetings.

The meeting adjourned  at 11:35 AM.

Kevin Hulke Secretary CVTCTU