The ACCCEA Unity Negotiations Team met today, June 30, in J202 at 2:30 for SSAACCC contract negotiations. The Board was represented by Joe Rossi, Karen Beckman, and Cindy DeFalco. Representing the ACCCEA were Penny Wells, Michelle Bevan, Mitch Mischlich, Rhonda Petruzzi, Ed Perkins, Claire Farnum, Nick Ganaway, Marsha Patrick John Stratton, Jim Usilton, Phil Cragg, Will Parsons, and Dom Nigro, NJEA representative and spokesperson.

If you have been following negotiations, you know by now that side A makes a proposal and then there is a caucus where side B discusses the proposal and prepares a counterproposal. The caucus may last hours, days, or weeks.

You may remember that in the last negotiations session on May 19, Dom did not have time to finish the Support Staff proposal. Joe Rossi had to leave. So today Dom finished the Support Staff proposal. That took about 15 minutes. Then there was an hour break after which Joe and his supporters returned to give the Board’s counterproposal. That took about an hour. Then Joe’s team left. The ensuing discussion lasted from 4:00 to 7:20. Those of us at negotiations donate our time. Mitch is on vacation and Michelle missed a Little League game and most of us made a special trip to be there. We do it for the Glory, the Prestige, and the Psychological High. In addition, many of us have it on our list of why we should be admitted to Heaven.

So far I have said nothing about content. That is because not much has happened so far. We have agreed on a couple of changes but nothing of any great significance. This session today, however, was the first time either side had addressed “money”. Joe had something in his proposal about money. If one took it seriously, one might be insulted, angry, or just in disbelief.

Support Staff has had more sessions at the table than the other groups. The Support Staff contract is usually the most difficult to settle because they have more job categories and thus more issues. What is going on with the other units is that they have made a proposal and the Board has responded. On Thursday we will meet again and the ACCCEA Unity Team will be there for the Culinary Unit counterproposal.

I doubt if we will finish before July 1, but it is still possible. Negotiations dates are scheduled for June 1, June 8, June 13, June 22, and June 27.

Submitted by Will Parsons, Coordinator of the Unity Negotiations Team

In the problem solving process, determining who has the power to solve the problem is critical. Using persuasion or pain on someone who does not have the power to do anything about the problem is a waste of time. The person actually making the decisions is not always obvious. The powerbroker in the Southern New Jersey Democratic Party organization is a banker who has never run for office. If you want to run for office as a democrat, you had better know who that is. A former ACC President, Ron Bush, who had been an NEA representative in New York, spent a year wining and dining a faculty bargaining unit president who was only peripherally involved in making decisions.

So who has the power in ACCC negotiations? In order for an agreement made at the “table” to stick, it must be ratified by the bargaining unit membership and by the ACCC Board of Trustees. Usually the bargaining unit members unofficially delegate that authority to the negotiating team. In the past, the proposed faculty contract has been ratified. There were two times when it has been close, but it was ratified. Most of the time, the vote in favor of approval was unanimous, except for one vote opposed. That one vote was cast by a member “on principle”. In effect, the bargaining team has the power to make decisions for the unit.

On the other side of the “table” sits Joe Rossi and one or two people who provide some kind of support and who are there mostly for show. Joe does not have the power to make important decisions. He can rearrange his proposal and bring it back as a new proposal, but it is the same lady in a different dress. He does what he is told.

Members of the Board are political appointees. Some are very good and some have little idea about what goes on at the College. There is no official training for new Board members about what their role is. The Board should be mostly concerned with broad policy decisions and major financial decisions. The Board should not be involved in day to day running of the College. The Board delegates those decisions to the President. The Board appoints a small committee of Board members who communicate with the President and with Joe Rossi about negotiations. The Board’s committee is mostly concerned with money. Usually the Board delegates decisions about negotiations to the President. Usually the decision makers for the Board are the President and a few of his top advisors. On a couple of occasions, we felt it was the Board’s team who was calling to shots. It is my guess that the President is in charge of negotiations now, but that the Board may be making decisions later if negotiations seem to be getting out of control.

Will Parsons, Unity Team Negotiations Coordinator

It looks unlikely that we will finish negotiations before July 1. It is still possible, however. It is up to the Board. As far as I can see, there are not major language issues on either side that are deal breakers.

The biggest problem in reaching settlement is that the Board is not sure how much money it has. The Board is hoping that the State money that was cut from our budget will be restored, or at least partially restored. NJEA is putting much time and effort into lobbying the State legislature to increase the amount of money for the community colleges. Every year more of the money the College has to function comes from the student. Near the end of August we have a good idea what the September enrollment figures will be. By that time, the financial picture is clearer and the Board wants to finish negotiations and get on with other business. The end of August has been a common time to reach settlement.

One way to quickly finish negotiations is to “roll over the present contacts” and just settle on money issues. What “roll over the present contract” means is to keep the language of the contract as it is except for money issues. Brookdale Community College and Essex Community College have recently rolled over their contracts. No one on either side is proposing that for ACCC.

I do not have the dates of the next negotiations with me, but I think the next session is May 30, next Tuesday. Will Parsons, Coordinator for the Unity Negotiations Team

I had hoped to report on the May 9 and May 12 negotiations, but those meeting were cancelled by Joe Rossi. There was also a meeting scheduled for May 23, but that was cancelled by Dom Nigro. Dom and Joe are going back and forth by email trying to set up meeting dates. Right now no dates are scheduled. Scheduling meetings is a major factor in slowing the process. At the rate things are going, our chances of settling before July 1 are slim. Once we get to July, it is going to be more difficult to schedule meetings. Another factor that slows down negotiations is the length of time it takes to firm up the College’s budget.

The way negotiations works is that the non-money issues are negotiated first. If money were settled first, one side would have a difficult time getting the other side to negotiate seriously. Another reason non-money issues are first is that the Board does not want to settle until it knows how much money it has. Back in the late Seventies, the legislature passed a bill stating that school labor negotiations had to begin before October first of the last year of the contract. One year we did start that early, and we tried to get to money faster by putting only money issues in our proposal. It did not work. The problem is that “negotiate” means that you sit at the table and talk. It does not mean that you agree to anything.

The Board will not seriously talk money until it has made a tentative budget in January. It does not know how much money is coming in from the State until the end of June. The only year we settled before the contract ran out was when Orth was President. We settled before July first because he decided we would settle before July first.

So first the Board decides how much money it will give us, and then we negotiate to make sure we get what they have decided to give us. I know on a couple of contracts, we got more than what they budgeted. One problem is that the Board sometimes is unrealistic. The County people compare us to what the County employees are getting. ACCC gets some of its money from the County, but we are not County employees. We compare ourselves to what the other community colleges are getting. The Presidents of the Colleges talk to each other and the unions talk to each other. Even though the community colleges negotiate independently, usually the settlements are not far apart. One college came in high recently, but they are coming off a 3%, 3%, and 3% contract. One year when Bush was president, we were high with 8, 8 1/4, and 8 1/2. The reason we were high is that Bush decided we would be high. He said that he really got blasted by the other presidents. He also got fired because of financial problems.

Negotiations often takes a whole year to complete. After it is over, neither side is happy. Then you look at the contract. You see how little has changed and wonder why it took so long.

Will Parsons, Unity Bargaining Team Coordinator