The Administrative bargaining unit at Camden County College is at impasse over the College’s demand that employees pay for health benefits. So far no community college unit has given in to this demand. The Council of County Colleges apparently is behind this push. CCC tried what they thought was a weak unit to get their foot in the door of “cost sharing”. The Board is demanding this even though they are saving many thousands of dollars with the new State health benefits plan. In addition, college employees are paying for their benefits by accepting salaries that are less than what they would get in the private sector. If the Camden County College Board is successful, we will see this at the next negotiations. The CCC employees and other community colleges will be rallying at the Camden County Board meeting Tuesday, March 4, 7:00 pm at the Blackwood campus. ACCCEA people who care about their health benefits should help pack that board meeting. Mark your calendar. Will Parsons, ACCCEA Secretary

I checked my personnel file today as I said I would. The procedure is easy. Go upstairs in J building to Human Resources, and ask one of the clerks to see your file. I asked Charita McClain. Charita gave me the file and directed me to the small round table just outside the office. She also gave me a small pad of yellow stickies to put on pages I wanted copied. I thumbed through the file and ten minutes later handed it back. Human Resources could ask that you look through the file under supervision. There was an incident many years ago where some documentation was removed by the employee. So check your file soon and then yearly. If you get into a situation that you think could result in a law suit or in arbitration, check it right away.

Wilfred Parsons, ACCCEA Secretary, Faculty Association President

At the last Faculty Association meet I spoke in general about a grievance this semester that involved a disciplinary note in the person’s personnel file. I said that the importance of the file is that only material in that file can be used in an arbitration or legal case. I also said that if the administration put something in the file that the person had not seen, the arbitrator or judge would not admit it as evidence. After the meeting, a faculty member corrected me. She said that if the material had been in the file for a long time, it could be used as evidence.

I wrote to Chris Berzinski, our NJEA Higher Ed consultant, and he said that “it doesn’t have to be in a personnel file for a long time for it to be used as evidence. It can be in for a short time - even a few days.”

At least we do have language in our contract saying that only material in the personnel file can be used in the hearing. Without that clause in the contract Chris says “arbitrators can and do bend the general understanding that you can’t use material from other “secret” files depending on the “probative value” of whatever document the administration may try to introduce.”

I have not looked at the contents of my personnel file since the Seventies. I spoke with Dennis today who said he has never checked his file. I suggest that faculty members check their file every year and make a copy of everything in it. I will set a good example and make an appointment to check my file and report back next week. Chris says that, “If a faculty member gets involved in a dispute with the administration, the member should check the file immediately and regularly and copy everything in it.”

What we might want to do in the next negotiations is to add a statement that anything that may be categorized as derogatory in nature cannot be placed in the file without the faculty member being notified and asked to sign an acknowledgement that they have seen it. Will Parsons, ACCCEA Secretary and Faculty Association President

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

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