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.