The SSAACCC Staff Officers and the Grievance Committee met with Chris Berzinski, their NJEA Field Representative, May 31 for a three-hour training session on processing grievances. The Support Staff officers present were Ed Perkins, President; Michelle Bevan, Vice President; and Rhonda Petruzzi, Secretary. Grievance Committee members present were Renee DeAngelo, Chair; Sandi Guenther; Alison Blizzard; Cynthia Correa; Penny Gardner; and Sean Fisher. Will Parsons, ACCCEA Secretary, was also present

In Part A of the Session, Chris went over the essential elements of the grievance process. Chris said the grievance procedure is the only part of the contract that is mandated by law. It is a problem solving process. In his fifteen point presentation, some of the things Chris talked about were what a grievance is, who handles the grievance, timeliness, just cause, preparing for arbitration, and Weingarten rights. In the session, Chris gave many examples from grievances he has handled and members asked questions and made comments.

Part B was role playing. Chris gave the members handouts describing a specific recent grievance at another nameless community college. The members read the case, discussed the facts, and looked through the SSAACCC contract for articles that might have been violated. The committee worked on three different cases. Chris said that he was impressed by the quality of thinking the Grievance Committee showed. He said they hit on almost all the essential elements in each case.

In Part C, Chris opened it up for discussion of problems on campus right now. Several problems came up including a problem with the College’s continual postponement of reclassification. Several options were discussed.

In the discussion, Grievance Committee Members were concerned that SSAACCC members do not know their Weingarten rights. These rights came out of a U.S. Supreme Court case in 1975. In that case, the Supreme Court said that employees have a right to union representation during investigative interviews by management. If the employee has a “reasonable belief” that disciplinary action may result from what he or she says at the hearing, he or she has the right to union representation. In the future SSAACCC members will be hearing more about how grievances are handled.

Toward the end of June, SSAACCC has scheduled training for Support Staff Area Representatives

Will Parsons, ACCCEA Secretary

Please be aware that our new contract language is the same as our old contract language regarding calling out sick one day prior to a College holiday. The contract language reads:

“A SSAACCC member shall not be compensated for a sick day taken one day prior to a College holiday. This shall include a Friday before a weekend holiday. Two or more sick days taken prior to a College holiday may require written physician’s certification.”

This language is on page 47 in the SSAACCC 2002-2006 contract. If you have any questions regarding this language please feel free to contact Ed or Michelle for further clarification.

Michelle Bevan
SSAACCC Vice President

The ACCC Education Association, the unified group, has been working informally for years, but as the old-timers leave, it becomes more important to have rules/guidelines” so the new people know how things work. For instance, Danays Alvarez and Michelle Bevan have organized two workshops for Support Staff and wanted to know how to get reimbursed for expenses. There is no written policy. There should be.

My big goal for the year as ACCC Education Association Secretary is to get by laws and policy for the Education Association in writing and approved. There are other business details that need to be straightened out also. Some of the bargaining units in the past were incorporated and some were not. Right now, none are up-to-date. Incorporation would give the officers of the bargaining unit protection from being sued by a member for damages. The State assumes the group applying to be incorporated has a treasury. Ours do not. The dues money collected goes into the common treasury of the unified group, the ACCCEA. Dennis Huey is our treasurer. Dom Nigro, our NJEA representative, has agreed to work with the units on straightening out the incorporation process.

Michelle and Danays asked John Stratton, President of the ACCCEA, and Dennis Huey, for approval to spend money and were so authorized. If it were a large sum of money, John might have called a meeting of the ACCCEA Executive Committee and asked for approval by the group. In any event, the procedure should be in writing. Wilfred Parsons, Secretary of the ACCCEA, at wkparsons@comcast.net

The ACCCEA 2006-2007 Negotiating Team met May 10 at 5:00 for hor dourves at Sugar Hill Inn. Attending the gathering were Michelle Bevan, Phil Cragg, Renee DeAngleo, Dennis Huey, Dom Nigro, Will Parsons, Ed Perkins, Rhonda Petruzzi, John Stratton, Jim Taggart, and Jim Usilton.

Don Nigro was there with a friend Kathleen who is a fellow labor consultant. Don said he might not have come back this year except that he thought it would be an easy negotiation. He knows the players on both sides and he has friends on the ACCCEA Team. (He has sent his crystal ball out for repairs.)

Dom first started as our NJEA representative when Dick Kirchoffer and Mary Tower were the Faculty Association negotiating team in 1974. The seventeen years olds at the College then are now fifty. Don has played an important role in the working conditions here and knows our contracts better most employees.

The Team talked about the protracted negotiations and what caused them. Not everyone agreed on the cause or causes, but everyone did agree that next time negotiations should start earlier and job actions should start earlier. Some people feel that the President would have gotten involved sooner if we had shut done registration on the first day.

I said that this team was the “best one I have ever worked with”. “We all worked together and supported each other”. We have been used at other NJ community colleges as a model of how it is possible to do unified negotiations.

It might seem too soon to be talking about the next negotiations, because we have a four year contract. The contract runs from July 1, 2006 to June 30, 2010. The first year of the contract is past and we need to start negotiations almost a year before it runs out. We should begin negotiations October 2009 – only about two years away.
Will Parsons, Former ACCCEA President

Management and the Association met this afternoon to discuss Monday, December 24th. Currently the college is scheduled to be open that day. However, Management is willing to split the day with us in order to give employees that day off to be included in the Holiday break. For 35 hour SSAACCC members, you will be required to give 3 1/2 hours of vacation time, and Management will give 3 1/2 hours. For 40 hour SSAACCC members, you will be required to give 4 hours of vacation time, and Management will give 4 hours. You will not need to submit a slip for this time. It will be automatically deducted. Please plan accordingly.

Michelle Bevan
SSAACCC Vice President