THE GORGE — In a recorded bargaining session, the union representing 84 faculty and 16 classified staff at Columbia Gorge Community College (CGCC) presented their financial proposals for the next agreement on April 3.
A supermajority of academic professionals has now signed union interest cards. At the meeting, union representatives asked CGCC a final time to let academic professionals into the union at the bargaining table, having delayed their petition to Oregon’s Employee Relations Board (ERB) for that purpose.
Jarett Gilbert, vice president of instructional services, refused on behalf of the college, so the union’s attorney submitted the ERB petition on April 4.
CGCC did not respond to a request for comment before press deadline.
Meanwhile, the union is moving forward as if academic professionals are already admitted, Union Vice President tina ontiveros [sic] said. This is in the hope that, once the Employee Relations Board performs a card check, they will not have to redo their work. The process of checking cards takes about 30 days.
Union leaders recently met with their colleagues from Portland Community College (PCC), where academic professionals have union representation, ontiveros said at the meeting. “It’s easily done, PCC has been doing it since the ‘80s,” when CGCC was under PCC accreditation, she said.
She added the union can “say with complete confidence” that faculty and classified staff at CGCC are happy to see academic professionals join.
“We appreciate the work that the union has done ... we support that process and look forward to seeing it, and when it comes time to act, we’ll do what we need to do,” said Gilbert.
The union then presented what they hope to see changed: CGCC should prioritize “leveling out” worker pay to align with other Oregon community colleges, and make sure all workers can afford decent quality of life; establish a clear process for placing new hires in the pay scale; commit to annual cost of living adjustments (COLAS); and continue to ensure healthcare, retirement and time off for all.
The union also asked for clear job descriptions and regular advancement up the pay scale, with a formal and timely process for resolving workload issues.
CGCC has the lowest-paid faculty in Oregon, according to a union analysis of wage agreements at all Oregon community colleges. Based on a comparison between CGCC’s pay scale and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) data, which studies wages in every U.S. county, many CGCC employees also don’t make a living wage.
Using MIT’s numbers, classified staff don’t earn a living wage until 12 years of work at CGCC. The highest pay for most academic professionals at CGCC is $65,436, achieved after 18 years employment — more than $7,000 under the average wage for education, training and library employees in Wasco and Hood River counties.
A living wage is one that pays just for “basic needs,” like food, housing, childcare, civic engagement and broadband internet. The union is pushing for wages that match MIT’s living wage for Wasco County.
They also requested a $10,000 pay raise for academic professionals, and suggested those who were working at CGCC before July 2019 move three steps up the pay scale to compensate for a recent pay cut, which occurred in CGCC’s last restructuring.
The union also wants annual longevity increases for everyone who reaches the top of a pay scale — only classified staff currently get that.
“[W]e want everybody to be able to live here where they work,” said union president Rob Kovacich.
On March 20, CGCC’s bargaining team gave a presentation on how the budget will be made, detailing the funds from which money is drawn and how they are managed.
CGCC is dealing with several late audits, and work on the next budget is just beginning. Therefore, Financial Officer Saundra Buchanan said she did not have clear projections of what that next budget would be, which holds a total of about $11 million. Of that, 87% is personnel cost. CGCC recently changed auditors and transitioned financial information systems.
“The big takeaway is that there really are no other pots of money,” said Buchanan, leaving limited funds for salary increases or new initiatives.
In 2017, CGCC did a study of wages within community college administrations across Oregon. Wages for the administration at CGCC were adjusted accordingly.
Now the union is asking the college to do the same for faculty, staff and academic professionals, placing them in the middle of the pay scale for similar Oregon colleges.
“We just want everybody on the same playing field,” Kovacich said, noting the union was “rather disappointed” in the college’s financial presentation.
“Generally speaking, I think there is a lot of common interest in what you presented here in terms of [pay], benefits, and how we take care of folks,” Gilbert said at the meeting.
The union also provided CGCC’s bargaining team and their Zoom audience with a refresher on House Bill 2016, which “codified into state law the right of public employees to form unions... it is illegal for public employers to discourage public employees from forming unions,” ontiveros said.
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