Cape May County Herald. ACCC Educators Present Unified Front (9.27.2006) Educators at Atlantic Cape Community College filled the room at the Sept. 26 Board of Trustees meeting. Their four-year contract expired June 30, and according to the professors assembled, “negotiations haven’t been going well.” Despite close quarters in the meeting room, they made sure their red lettered signs stating “Settle Now” were seen and their message was heard. “We are currently getting less than the cost of living and less than any other community college,” said Wilfred Parsons, head of the education association. “We just want the cost of living.” “We should get the same as other community colleges,” Parsons added. “We’re not asking for more.” “Our challenge is to provide a fair and reasonable compensation package to the employees while meeting our mission of affordable and accessible higher education for our students,” according to the college’s official statement, Despite negotiation difficulties, Parsons said he is still hopeful that a settlement will come soon. See the Oct. 4 Herald for more details.

Note: The October 4th negotiations session was cancelled. The next meeting is October 10th. Will Parsons, Unity Negotiations Team Coordinator

There has been a change in negotiations dates. We will not meet to negotiate on October third as I had said we would. The next time we will meet at the table is October 10 at 1:30. At that meeting we’ll start with faculty and try to do another group, possibly Culinary. In addition, we have October 17, 24, and 31 booked.

I am disappointed that the October third date had to be cancelled. I had hoped that we would get a signal that Joe Rossi wants to wrap this up. One reason negotiations drags on in some places is that the college hires a lawyer to do the negotiations. They get $100 to $150 per hour to negotiate. The longer it takes, the more they make. One time, Bill Orth hired Brookdale’s lawyer Bob Murray to negotiate here. He drove a Rolls and wore a huge rock. Murray was in no rush to settle and Orth wanted to have a contract before the old one ran out. Orth let Murray go and brought back Bob Goudy. Bob negotiated as part of his job and had no reason to drag out negotiations. We settled quickly. Joe Rossi is getting paid to negotiate and may be dragging things out to show that he is working hard and is worth the money. Some contracts were settled this year in one or two sessions and ours could have been settled quickly too by “rolling over” the present contracts and settling on an average money settlement.

The Emergency Action Council met Thursday, September 28 at 4:30 in A 146 to discuss and plan future job actions through October. At the meeting the Council agreed to a show of unity at the Faculty Development Day. In addition, we agreed not to attend the President’s Breakfasts. There was much talk about what to do during Installation day. The Council decided not to make firm plans until after the October tenth negotiations.

Thank you all for showing up and appearing before the Board. You showed we are unhappy with being offered less than the cost of living and less than any other community college in New Jersey. Pete asked me if I wanted to use the microphone and I said, “It does not matter what I say – This is body language”. After the show of strength, a reporter from The Press and a reporter from the Herald interviewed me. They asked no hard questions and I spoke in generalities. I am interested in reading what kind of stories appear.

One question was, “How many members are here?” I never counted. I could have told him that we ran out of pizza. That is eight slices from fifteen boxes or one hundred twenty slices and then we had ten more pizzas delivered. People showed up from Tuckerton, from Williamstown, and from Hammonton, and perhaps from farther away than that. Without all of you being there we would not have been effective.

After the demonstration, I went upstairs to teach my human anatomy and physiology class. I left a little after 10 o’clock. Usually the only people around at that time are security and custodians. Last night I walked out with two Board members. The fact that they were there so long indicates they were engaged in serious discussions. I hope those discussions lead to new contracts that everyone can live with. We will find out next Tuesday when the faculty contract is up for discussion. Faculty has only money issues left. Meanwhile the Emergency Action Council will meet Thursday to agree on future actions. Will Parsons, Unity Negotiating Team Coordinator

Tuesday, September 26 at the Cape May Campus. Try to be there between 5:00 and 5:15. We should be done by 7:15 or 7:30. Car-pool if you can. If the parking lot is full, you can park in the adjacent parking area. There will be pizza and drinks. If you need a chair, consider bringing one. Here are the directions to the Cape May Campus.

Cape May County Campus
341 Court House-South Dennis Road
Cape May Court House 08210

From the north-take Garden State Parkway south to exit 10A for Cape May Court House. Turn right onto Route 657 West (Court House-South Dennis Road) which turns into Route 657 North. Drive 1.3 miles, the entrance to ACCC is on your left.

From the South – take Garden State Parkway north to exit 10A for Cape May Court House. Turn left onto Route 657 West (Court House-South Dennis Road) which turns into Route 657 North. . Drive 1.3 miles, the entrance to ACCC is on your left.

From the east – Drop anchor and take Route 657 West (Court House-South Dennis Road) which turns into Route 657 North. Cross the Garden State Parkway. Drive 1.3 miles, the entrance to ACCC is on your left unless you are driving in reverse in which case it is on your right.

From the west – take Route 47 to Route 657 South (Court House-South Dennis Road). There is a light and a small white restaurant at that corner. Turn onto Route 657 South. Drive 4.9 miles, the entrance to ACCC is on your right.

Will Parsons, Unity Negotiating Team Coordinator

On September 19, the Unity Negotiations Team met with Board representatives Joe Rossi, Karen Beckman, and Cindy DeFalco in J202. Representing the College employees were Michelle Bevan, Phil Cragg, Nick Ganaway, Dennis Huey, Mitch Mischlich, Dom Nigro, Will Parsons, Marsha Patrick, Jim Sacchinelli, John Stratton, Jim Taggart, Jim Usilton, and Penny Wells. The Faculty contract was on the table.

The meeting began at 1:00 and ended at 5:00. That makes a total of fifty-seven hours of extremely tedious sitting. That is seven eight-hour days with ten to twelve to twenty College employees being non-productive. Seven times ten is seventy non-productive work days so far. What a huge waste of time! Some of the community college contracts this year have been settled in one or two meetings. And Joe Rossi has the nerve to say, “We are still early in negotiations.”

I had hoped that our small job action would have pushed us into the end game, but it did not. We did make progress yesterday, but only a little bit. There was a decrease in the “give-backs” along with a decrease in the money offer. Stuff was shuffled around. Watching grass grow is faster and more exciting. I can hear one administrator who prides herself on reason saying, “You haven’t talked enough.” “You just need to sit down and reason together.” There is nothing much to talk about. We want a contract with figures like the other community colleges and no “give-backs”.

Job actions are a way of “acting-out” our frustrations with the offers. Job actions are negative, but it is the only tool we have. We have been working without a contract for almost three months. The Emergency Action Team has a long list of actions that will get the attention of the Administration and the Board. Stay tuned for further developments.

Will Parsons, Unity Negotiating Team Coordinator