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BUDGET DEAL IS REACHED: CSU REMAINS ON A STARVATION DIET
CSU BOARD OF TRUSTEES MEETING THIS WEEK
BARGAINING UNIT 5 IRP DRAMA UNFOLDS AT SFSU
CSU SHINES IN FORBES' SALARY RANKINGS
CSU FRESNO CHAPTER QUESTION: WHAT HAS MY UNION DONE FOR ME??
CSU FRESNO PICNIC
TELL US ABOUT YOURSELF
UPCOMING EVENTS
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Budget Deal Is Reached: CSU Remains on a Starvation Diet
After more than 75 days of partisan struggle legislative leaders reached an agreement early Tuesday morning on a state budget for 2008/09.
The leaders--Senate Pro Tem Don Perata, Assembly Speaker Karen Bass, Assembly Republican leader Mike Villines and Senate Republican leader Dave Cogdill--called a news conference Sunday afternoon to announce that, following hours of closed door negotiations, an accord had been struck to end months of discord on a fiscal plan for the state.
Democrats and Republicans in both legislative houses then convened Monday evening and debated the plan until the wee hours of the morning before finalizing a deal that was promptly passed by both the Assembly and the Senate.
According to the plan, which the Governor on Tuesday vowed to veto, there will be no additional cuts to the CSU from what was outlined by the Governor in his May budget revision.
Still, the system will be under-funded by nearly $215 million from the amount of money promised under the Governor's "Higher Education Compact."
"This misguided budged doesn't solve any problems and in fact makes next year's CSU budget situation even more dire," says CSUEU President Pat Gantt. "We're all thankful that the May Revise is retained, but we should be equally concerned about improving the state's revenue stream, whether it be through taxes or other means, so that next year's budget will be better, not worse."
CSU Board of Trustees Meeting This Week
CSUEU made its presence known at the latest CSU Board of Trustees meeting, which took place Tuesday and yesterday, September 16-17, at the CSU Chancellor's Office facilities in Long Beach.
During the board's Collective Bargaining Committee report, taking place on Tuesday morning, CSUEU President Pat Gantt addressed the board about the state budget, lauding the Alliance for the CSU for its work in retaining the May Revise funds.
CSUEU VP for Representation Dennis Dillon spoke about Bargaining Unit 13 negotiations. BU13 is a small group of teachers in the Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages, or TESOL, Program at CSULA. They work in the College of Extended Learning, where they teach English to students who in many cases have degrees from their native countries. These students eventually have to pass the TOEFL, or Test Of English as a Foreign Language, required for admission into California's university systems. Their teachers had been without representation for many years, until they came under CSUEU's umbrella in 2006. Dillon pointed out the many injustices that these workers have endured through the years, including lack of seniority due to their temporary status until now.
Bargaining Unit 9 Chair Rich McGee discussed the In-Range Progression system, which for the last decade has basically been the only way that CSUEU members have been able to achieve higher pay within their current employee classification levels. The system, he pointed out, needs much greater funding in order to enable all employees to move upward in their salaries and classifications.
The board's Finance Committee report previewed the system's funding request for 2009/10. This request is critical to the number of classes offered, the number of new students granted admission, and the hiring and compensation of staff and faculty.
Tuesday's discussion served only as a preview discussion; the budget request will go to a vote of the full Board of Trustees at their November 18-19 meeting. The request then will be considered by the state Dept. of Finance for inclusion in the governor's state budget proposal, which he is to make public in early January 2009.
The CSU Board of Trustees meets six times per year in a combination of closed and open meetings. The open portions of their meetings are largely devoted to reports by committees covering such topics as finance, buildings, fundraising, personnel, and governmental relations.
Bargaining Unit 5 IRP Drama Unfolds at SFSU
High drama is unfolding on the San Francisco State University campus with the denial of 100 percent of recent BU5 In-Range Progression employee requests.
Under the guidance of Labor Relations Representative Jerrie McIntyre and Chapter 305 stewards, 56 custodians and lead custodians, six laborers, and one lead groundsworker applied for IRPs in the late spring as part of a statewide CSUEU initiative to spur increased IRP requests.
Unit 5 workers were stunned when word came back that management had denied all of the employee-requested applications in a form letter, with no explanations.
"Custodians and laborers applied for IRPs in great numbers and were denied in great numbers--that is, zero Unit 5 workers who submitted their own requests received IRPs," Jerrie explains.
"It's discrimination, plain and simple. Blue collar employees--predominantly minority group members at SFSU--are not on the radar screens of management like white collar workers are. Except for CSUEU's workshops, these workers were excluded from getting information about the process, particularly when it came to explanations from management about the criteria that led to these mass denials."
That lack of transparency is the subject of a union grievance that Jerrie filed, preceded by a request for related documents. "We looked at the 122 IRP denials they gave us," says Jerrie, "and those submitted by Unit 5 employees looked untouched, leading the union to conclude that these requests were dismissed out of hand without any real review of their merits, based on the criteria in our contract."
At the heart of the resulting grievance is precisely this flawed process. At a preliminary meeting with management about the grievance last Monday, CSUEU learned that a classifier had examined the custodians' requests and recommended a four percent IRP for one SFSU custodian. While not admitting discriminatory intent, SFSU's HR managers agreed to meet with the union and the affected workers to answer questions and to present settlement proposals for improving the IRP process at the university.
As a form of protest against the denials, play money and demands for fairness in the IRP process decorate the union bulletin board outside Human Resources.
"We had an amazing response from Unit 5 when we urged them to submit their own IRP requests," explains Jerrie. "I'm so proud of them. In spite of the odds, they really stood up for themselves in what is essentially a matter of dignity and respect."
CSU Shines in Forbes' Salary Rankings
CSU campuses shined in a recently released Forbes study analyzing salaries among grads who've been in the workforce for at least 10 years.
In an article titled Top Colleges for Getting Rich, Forbes placed several CSU campuses among the nation's leading public universities that produce top-earning alums. More than 13 CSU campuses made the cut, proving what many Cal State grads will gladly tell you--the return on investment for a California State University education is hard to beat.
In the Top State Universities category, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo took the number three spot, thanks to a boost from their outstanding engineering alums. San Jose State, CSU Chico, Cal State Fullerton, San Francisco State, San Diego State, Cal State Long Beach and CSU East Bay all made the top 50, proving that the combination of quality education and low student fees make the CSU one of the best educational bargains in the country.
Other campuses that made the roster include:
- Sacramento State
- Cal State Northridge
- Cal State Dominguez Hills
- CSU Stanislaus
- Humboldt State
Forbes' rankings were compiled from PayScale.com's real-time salary data. Forbes looked at the compensation of college grads from around the country with 10 to 20 years experience and schools with enrollment of at least 1,000 students. The full story and rankings are available at Forbes.com.
CSU Fresno Chapter Question: What Has My Union Done for Me??
In its September issue, the CSU Fresno Chapter 309 monthly newsletter, edited by chapter President Nancy Kobata, launches a new column devoted to recent cases that have been settled by chapter stewards.
The column's introduction reminds readers, "Remember, all of our stewards are volunteers; no one gets paid for representing you."
Among the accomplishments keeping chapter stewards busy on the Fresno campus:
1. Parking Lot V--44 new Faculty/Staff designated spaces were added this fall to Lot V as a result of a grievance filed on behalf of all employees.
2. Demotion-One of our employees filed for a reclass, and received a response that he was going to be reclassified to a lower classification. We filed a grievance and an appeal and got this overturned.
3. Between January and June of this year, 35 employees received IRPs and 12 employees had reclassifications approved.
4. Two major Health and Safety cases were resolved, one was the eye wash stations (or lack
thereof) in labs and the other was the rodent infestation in the north gym.
5. Met with disgruntled employees in three different departments to resolve conflicts/issues with
the department chair.
6. Reviewed new campus proposed policy on cell phones for employees and reached an agreement for the implementation of a new policy.
7. Reviewed campus proposed changes to parking lot B and traffic flow for the new University
High school and accepted campus proposal to provide additional staff parking in parking Lot C.
To view the entire newsletter online, click on Newsletter Archive at the chapter web site, http://www.csueu309.org/.
CSU Fresno Picnic
CSUEU President Pat Gantt (left) and VP for Organizing Ronnie Grant (right) flank members of the CSU Fresno chapter Executive Committee, including chapter President Nancy Kobata in the straw hat, at the CSU Fresno Labor Day Picnic, sponsored by the CSU Fresno Joint Labor Council, last September 2.
Tell Us About Yourself
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UPCOMING EVENTS
Monday, September 22
CSU Northridge
Founders Day, celebrating the campus' 50th anniversary
Saturday-Sunday, September 27-28, 10 a.m. - 5 p.m.
CSEA Board of Directors meeting
Los Angeles, Marriott Hotel, Grand Ballroom
Wednesday-Thursday, October 1-2
BU Council Meeting
Holiday Inn, Capitol Plaza, Sacramento
Monday, October 20
Last day to register to vote in the general election
Friday-Sunday, November 7-9, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.
CSUEU Board of Directors Meeting
Holiday Inn, Capitol Plaza, Sacramento
Tuesday-Wednesday, November 18-19
CSU Board of Trustees meeting
401 Golden Shore, Long Beach
Friday-Sunday, March 27-29
CSEA Women's Conference
Holiday Inn, Capitol Plaza, Sacramento
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See back issues of CSUEU E-News, distributed every other Thursday.
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