(Michele Marden – Executive Vice President)
I have been honored to serve as PCCFFAP Treasurer since 2013. In addition to the responsibility for development of the budget, I have been involved in member-led organizing and oversight.
In a recent survey, nearly 60% of FFAP members shared that they do not feel respected by PCC administration and 67% said they do not trust PCC to make decisions that are in the best interest of students. PCC’s future MUST include the voices of all faculty and academic professionals.
The pandemic awakened employees across the nation and world to mismanagement and abuse by employers and started an uprising of member-led organizing that resulted in significant wins for employees. FFAP’s organizing has included some big wins such as removal of hostile managers, but we can do more.
As Executive Vice President, I will bring my experience and commitment to this new role, including…
- Supporting Lead Stewards in building our contract action team (CATs) and steward network
- Helping expand our existing member-led organizing structures that allow us to collectively remake the College for ourselves and our students
- Monitoring FFAP’s functioning and providing leadership whenever coordination or improvement is needed
- Finding an effective response to PCC’s continual addition of new administrators, while cutting classes and faculty
In the last year, connections have been growing in the state among locals.These conversations are exciting as the focus goes beyond support for each other’s challenges with management. What might happen if we collectively joined forces with our sister labor unions in a coordinated effort to demand an end to the injustices in the city, state, nation, and world?
With your vote, I promise to join with you to build our collective power and win demands to transform our workplace. Maybe one day, with others, we will build communities and systems that work for everyone.
(Kathleen Janicki – Treasurer)
I am Kathleen Janicki and I would like your vote for me for Treasurer of PCCFFAP.
I have been a member of FFAP since I was hired in January 2007. I have been volunteering on the FFAP Finance Committee for about 6 years.
Last year, I was appointed to the Oversight & Bylaws-Compliance Officer position on the Executive Council of FFAP. The combined Team from the Finance Committee and the Oversight & Bylaws Committee, our Team developed and implemented much needed policies including Conflict of Interest, Fraud, and Whistleblower. We continue to develop policies. Together, we worked to assess the effectiveness of the Executive Council.
Synopsis of My Proficiencies:
- 6 years’ experience on the FFAP Finance Committee.
- 1 year experience as the FFAP Oversight & Bylaws Officer.
- Nearly 20 years’ experience teaching Accounting, Budgeting & Financial Analysis at various community colleges and universities.
- Over 20 years’ experience working as an Accountant, Controller, Auditor and Director of Finance in non-profit and for-profit companies.
As your Treasurer, I will oversee the income, expenses, and budgeting process ensuring transparency so that our Union is financially stable for the future. I welcome your participation. Let me know what we can do to support you. Our Union can use your expertise, together we are stronger.
Please Vote!
(Emiliano Vega – VP for Grievance/Contract Admin: FT faculty)
I would like to continue to serve as your FT Faculty Grievance Officer. I am committed to supporting all members and non-members when they are in need and better utilizing grievances to uphold our strong contract and working rights.
My goals for the 2023-2025 cycles are to outreach to more members one on one, help our organizing team to gain new members, help build an actionable goal list (with yearly / multi year benchmarks) that is member facing and to help organize more departments individually to collectively uphold and improve working conditions.
(Maureen Wright – VP for Grievance/Contract Admin: FT faculty)
Why elect me? Vote for change! Excessive passivity improves nothing.
Help me to help you. Elect me as your Grievance Officer and our Union’s advocate. When College administrators abuse their authority, a strong union advocate protects you. Grievances can resolve our workplace conflicts amicably.
Consider the incumbent’s efforts. The Union’s annual published performance reports show that on behalf of 423 full-time faculty members, the incumbent conducted only two grievances each year.
Faculty are unfairly treated and intimidated. As your Grievance Officer, I can help end hardships for those who suffer employment “issues” caused by the College’s abuses.
My advocacy can protect your rights. When the College tried to violate our rights via an improper reduction-in-force (RIF) action, we stopped the College. We won that grievance!
My institutional memory offers insights into strategies to restore shared governance and fairness at our College. At PCC, I have worked as a casual-employee, an academic professional, and a part-time faculty. For the last 24 years, I worked as a full-time Computer Information Systems and Business Administration instructor. I teach human resources and management courses.
From former employment outside PCC, graduate work, on-going professional development, and union activities, I have gained expertise in employment laws, collective bargaining, job classification and compensation systems. For the U.S. Department of Labor, I developed and implemented programs that promoted diversity, equity, and inclusion for under-represented groups. For more than seven years at another large public employer, as a middle-manager, I conducted employee assessments, and disciplinary investigations. From my depth and breadth of experience, I have learned how to counteract “bad managers.”
I grew up in a union household and saw the union’s transformative power to achieve equitable changes and to level the playing field for all. Knowledge means power. Transparency means accountability. Vote for Maureen!
(Kris Fink – VP for Grievance/Contract Admin: PT faculty)
A few years ago, while I was getting my hair cut, the stylist asked me a seemingly innocuous question: “Do I like my job?” It seemed a straightforward question, but I took a long pause before answering, “I do like my job. I just don’t like the conditions under which I do my job.” This fall will mark my 22nd year as a PT Comp/Lit instructor at PCC, and during those twenty-two years, I’ve had a lot of time to think about ways to improve working conditions for PT faculty at PCC. I estimate I’ve taught upwards of 154 classes and engaged with over 3,000 students. And each term, I have had (as we all have had) the worry of not being assigned a class or of having a class canceled or of being told, in some capacity or another, that I am not enough. So, during these twenty-two years, I have also
- Worked as a PT faculty coordinator for FFAP
- Attended the Coalition of Contingent Academic Labor (COCAL) Convention
- Attended AFT National and AFT Oregon Conventions
- Served on the Executive Committee since 2015
- Hosted Campus Equity Week
- Fought for Step and Pay Equity for PT instructors
Currently, I am on the Bargaining Team representing PT Faculty and share the VP Grievance Officer Role with Shirlee Geiger who will be stepping down this year. Fighting to improve working conditions for PT instructors is, as Shirlee says, “sacred work,” and I am committed to doing this work whether that be at the bargaining table, in direct meetings with management, through grievances, or working one-on-one with PT faculty.
Your vote is appreciated and your voice is heard.
(Davina Ramirez – VP for Political and Legislative Action)
Throughout 22 years at PCC, my role has morphed many times. I’ve been adjunct and full-timer; SAC chair and faculty department chair; faculty, tutor and student. Similarly, my role in our union has changed, from rank-and-file member to union steward, from PT Grievance Officer back to rank-and-file. Each of these roles has reflected the needs of the moment and the ways I could best serve members. I now ask for your support as VP of Political and Legislative Action because I believe this is the position where I can most effectively advocate for every member.
PCCFFAP’s purview is measures and non-partisan races, which traditionally have low turnout. Our voice may be small in Oregon politics, but in races where margins may be in the double digits, we can have an outsize influence. I want our endorsement processes to continue becoming more systematic and transparent. Measures like Eviction Representation for All and leadership in even small positions like PCC’s Board impact our livelihood, health and families. I envision the PLAC proactively engaging with candidates and races where we can have an impact and closer collaborations with other unions, like the Portland Association of Teachers and PSU-AAUP.
The role of VP-PLAC also means a place on the Executive Council and the ability to be a voice in that room. PCC functions solely because of PCCFFAP and PCCFCE, but our college has yet to demonstrate any commitment to a respectful relationship with us. I don’t want to stand outside of my union and criticize; I want to lend my voice, skills and determination to a strong union that fights for, stands for and stands with every member.
Solidarity is the silver lining of the hardest times. I ask for your vote and thank you for your consideration.
(Alex Vuilleumier – Oversight and Bylaws)
I’m running for Oversight and Bylaws Officer in order to maintain alignment with our bylaws and mission, particularly “mutual assistance and cooperation” and “eliminating all forms of discrimination in education.” I am open to new ideas and believe in our union’s organizational processes—both are important, and if a question arises, I will remain neutral, listen to everyone, and consider all options in order to do what our membership believes is best. As a union representative, I work for you!
About me:
- For nearly fifteen years, I’ve been a devoted member of our union, teaching Composition out of Rock Creek Campus.
- During this bargaining cycle, I’ve been drafting contract language with the Part-Time Bargaining Advisory Council to improve working conditions for all faculty and APs.
- On the Communications Committee, I’ve helped to edit every piece of communication sent to our members.
- As a Member Organizer, I provided outreach to hundreds of faculty and APs, increased membership, included dozens of members in new roles, and co-wrote a significant survey to assess the needs of membership leading into bargaining.
- My membership on the Organizing Committee has increased my ability to give voice to our Contract Action Team and members at large.
My name is Alex, and I would very much appreciate your vote.
(Erik Johnsen – Lead Steward PT)
Hello fellow PCCFFAP members, my name is Erik Johnsen and I am running to be one of two Lead Stewards for PT Faculty. Currently, I am a member of your Bargaining Team, co-chair of the Part-Time Bargaining Advisory Council, as well as being a member of the Contract Action Team and the Communications Committee for the Federation. I have been active in union work for the past two years and am looking to continue that work as part of the Executive Council with your help and support.
I believe in the Organizing Model for union work which can be summarized in a few key points:
- Unions should be democratic and member-led
- A commitment to transparency in negotiations with management
- Growing the collective power of our union through concerted action
- Our union is part of a larger labor movement and we should actively support other workers
- We should engage our members in creative and meaningful ways
- The willingness to stand up to management to fight for what we need and deserve
I can sense the frustration of our members right now as we lived through the disastrous Pandemic ReOrg and are now dealing with ReOrg 2.0. The balance-of-power at the College has tipped heavily toward our bloated management class and away from the people who actually make the College function. While management continually focuses on themselves, to the detriment of faculty, APs, and students, our Union is the best avenue to fight to re-center our work and our students at the heart of the College’s mission. I humbly ask for your vote and look forward to serving you as Lead Steward.
(Jacob Richman – Lead Steward PT)
Jacob Richman (he/him),
I am an adjunct faculty member in the Multimedia CTE program at PCC Cascade. I have been an adjunct faculty member at half a dozen colleges and universities and know the unique struggles that part-time and contingent faculty face. I have also been on the executive committee of PSUFA (AFT 3571), the part-time faculty union at Portland State, and have had years of experience organizing and advocating for my fellow academic workers. Along with being an educator, I am an artist, musician, and have facilitated Tenderloin Opera Company, a homeless advocacy music and theater group for over 10 years. I am excited to help my fellow workers achieve better pay, working conditions, and respect. Thank you for your consideration!
(Patricia Kepler – Lead Steward AP)
Thank you for considering my nomination for AP steward for FFAP. I began volunteering with our union shortly after coming to PCC. This was my first connection with a union; however, I have always been drawn to community service. I have received three Governor appointments to Oregon commissions and served as a founding member of the Metro Committee on Racial Equity. Representation of and for marginalized members of our community is what motivates me to devote my time to this work. The APs of PCC invest so much of ourselves in the success of the college. It is my goal to make sure that employees receive the support they need to thrive without burnout or extreme stress so that they can spend their personal time doing something other than recovering from work.
(Aubrey Baldwin – Lead Steward CTE)
No Statement Submitted.