The Unity Negotiations Team met with Joe Rossi, Board representative, today in J202. Karen Beckman and Cindy DeFalco, Joe’s other team members, were absent. Representing the ACCC Education Association were Michelle Bevan, Phil Cragg, Claire Farnum, Nick Ganaway, Dennis Huey Dan Matt, Dom Nigro, Will Parsons, Heather Peterson, Jim Sacchinelli, John Stratton, Jim Taggart, Jim Usilton, and Penny Wells. There was some “movement at the table” today, but we are still not close to a settlement. The money is less than what other community colleges have gotten and significantly less than the CPI for South Jersey. Also they want to increase our medical co pay. The Board’s real plan may be to stall negotiations until January and collect interest on our wages. We do not want to spend hundreds of hours more talking about nothing. The Unity Negotiations Team has decided to initiate the plan of the Emergency Action Council to try to speed up the process. Stay tuned for further developments.

Three weeks ago, the faculty unit received an “off the table” proposal from Joe. One of the problems with the type of negotiations we do is that neither side has much room to explore options. One way to loosen up the process a little is to have informal meetings with just a couple people and with nothing in writing. The negotiations I have been involved in have ended with the chief negotiators going into the hall to get the final settlement. The offer we received from Joe was in writing and could just as well have been “on the table”. We responded and Joe countered and we determined that we had no room to counter so then the ACCCOSAP contract was on the table. There was one go-around with that contract but after waiting a long time for Joe to counter, at 4:00 we decided to call it a day. That was five hours of “negotiating”. Probably less than 5% of the time spent “at the table” occurs with both sides present. Most of the time is spent waiting for the other side to come back with a proposal.

This was the last time Clair will be able to attend sessions. She has resigned her counseling position at the College to enter Rutgers’ BSN program. We will miss her wisdom and energy at negotiations. Claire is the advisor for the nursing students whom I know will miss her also. Best wishes Claire from all of us. Will Parsons, Coordinator for the Unity Negotiations Team