Full-time faculty turns in their notice to strike

Today in front of a large crowd of students, faculty, and other staff, the full-time faculty association announced they have given notice to MHCC and will go on strike beginning at 5 a.m. on Thursday, May 12.

Recently the board has been quoted as saying that by a unanimous decision of the board that faculty who strike could be replaced with permanent replacements. That's right - I said PERMANENT. As in they are going to bring in people completely new to the school and they will be there from now on and even when all of this is over our faculty will not be able to return.

Faculty has already been told that all personal property must be removed from campus prior to the strike. I don't know if you realize this, but many of those resouces that are used in our classrooms by our faculty were in fact purchased by our faculty. It is their personal property. So if they go, so do all those resources. There's also the question about materials and such that were authored by our faculty. They belong to the faculty, not the school. So if they have to remove all personal property, wouldn't that include those items as well?

We have got to stand up for our education and say ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. We will not let you tear down this college brick by brick. Education is the mission of this college and you cannot do that without the resources, experience, and hard work brought to this institution by our faculty. We need to rally, picket, walk out, hold a sit-in, do whatever it takes to get the board and administration to understand that our wallets are not the school's unending supply of money. That they need to fund our education FIRST, not last.

See all the photos here

MHCCFA Bargaining Chair Sara Williams' comments to the Media (4/28/11):

Thank you for coming.

It is with regret that we invite you to hear our announcement today. The MHCCFA has sent notice to the College that the full time faculty will strike beginning on Thursday, May 12

The Faculty Association has offered more financial concessions during this bargaining cycle that at any other time in our history. We have met the Board’s demands on medical contributions and the salary schedule. We continue to provide ideas to settle the remaining economic issues on the table.

In return for these significant economic concessions, the faculty have requested two improvements in contract language. The first guarantees that faculty work will be protected for faculty members by disallowing “subcontracting” to outside entities. MHCC is proud to have some of the best graduation and persistence rates for Community Colleges in this state. It is essential that we maintain our educational quality by ensuring the continued presence of full time faculty at this institution. Faculty provide face-to-face and distance learning instruction, serve as resource librarians, and provide much needed counseling services. This work should be provided by faculty members.

The second language improvement concerns faculty rights. Our proposal says simply that when the administration makes a decision, that they will get faculty input prior to the decision being made. Many decisions in a college effect instruction, and faculty are often the individuals most knowledgeable about instruction. Therefore, the Board should want faculty input into these decisions. To be clear, we are not questioning the administration’s right to make the decisions. We believe that our input into those decisions is critical to the health of the college and maintaining high academic standards.

The Board’s recent threats to permanently replace faculty demonstrates the apparent lack of respect the Board has for faculty. This fight is fundamentally about respect for the faculty’s work, the faculty’s voice, and the faculty’s input.
The Board’s stated plan to implement their final offer in June contributes to the faculty’s decision to announce a strike date today. We consider this statement a response to the Board’s lack of interest in negotiating a contract. The faculty simply cannot understand the Board’s refusal to protect the students, the faculty, and the institution by working and compromising to find a reasonable settlement.

We, the faculty, invest our careers, our time, and our passion in building and maintaining MHCC as a strong community college for East County residents. We reiterate our dedication to the College, our students, our careers, and our families in this difficult time. We don’t want to strike, but we will.