The exhaustion is real. It’s also a union-busting strategy. Our organizing officer David Shultis recently reminded us that we can make the choice to notice and name the pain of the last few weeks. “We can be with it, look it in the face, and shout it out on the picket line. We can accept the discomfort of our struggle and dance about it. We can sing and march, and build community.” (Thanks, David 
)
Last Friday night, after receiving yet another disappointing offer from management, the bargaining team sat together, discussing how weary and demoralized we all felt. We talked about how much we missed our families. We contemplated next steps.
We convened the FFAP Executive Council (EC) around 8pm. They reminded us that we’ve compromised so much already. Our economic package cost is now less than $14M, far lower than any contract or re-opener settlement in the last decade. There is not much left to give up. Our EC colleagues reminded us that we are at the peak of our power – it certainly does not feel that way after 12 hours of bargaining! They are right, of course. Bargaining is a vortex, designed to isolate us and wear us down.
Union leaders are hearing A LOT from members these days. Our phones are buzzing from the moment we wake up and continue late into the night. Hundreds, maybe thousands of emails, text and signal messages, social media comments. Not to mention all of the one-on-one conversations on the picket line. On Saturday we surveyed union leaders including the bargaining team, Executive Council, strike captains, and Contract Action Team. We asked if anyone has received a message from a member urging us to settle for what administration is offering. The response: Not one.
The message from our EC colleagues on Friday night was delivered with clear eyes and complete clarity. “Hold the line.” Today (Sunday), we did just that during our mediation session. Here’s a bit of good news: The College is finally beginning to engage with us on the MOUs. They seem to have increased urgency around settling by Monday.
About the MOUs
We’ve gotten several emails from members who have questions about the MOUs, which are aimed at 1) increasing course sections across the college and 2) preventing the closure of Music and Sonic Arts program. We invite you to read them in our latest proposal.
We have continued to package the MOUs (in various iterations) alongside our financial proposals as a way to meet management’s interest in lowering costs. Some have suggested that we should drop the MOUs and focus on bargaining for more money. Others have signalled they would be willing to accept a lower COLA if management would work with us on the MOUs.
But this is a false choice. Management has never signaled they would offer more money if we dropped the MOUs. Nor have they indicated they might agree to MOUs in exchange for a lower COLA. Management has very consistently resisted BOTH the MOUs and reasonable COLAs. If that changes, we’ll definitely initiate a broader discussion with members.
The roots of our discontent
As bargaining drags on, we realize that the singular barrier to all that we need is the Financial Sustainability Action Plan, the supposed “living document” that turns out to be VERY rigid when it comes to our wages and students’ course offerings.
Remember that this austerity budget was developed behind closed doors, with zero input from students, faculty, or staff. It prioritizes administrative bloat, the ending fund balance, and “special projects” over the livelihoods of PCC workers. Maybe that’s why College leaders did not even pretend to get buy-in from us.
The Fiscal Sustainability Plan has a six-year horizon. It assumes declines in enrollment and state funding, and insists that we must cut NOW to forestall future, imagined shortfalls. But we are not negotiating a six-year contract. We are negotiating a two-year re-opener. And what we know about those two years is this: Enrollment is UP. State funding is UP. Revenue is STABLE. If we allow the College to balance future budgets on the backs of current employees, that will set a new dangerous precedent. It will allow management to invoke future hypothetical funding shortfalls to suppress our wages next time, and the time after that.
For our president, The Fiscal Sustainability Plan will define her legacy. If she is successful at cutting programs, course offerings, and suppressing our wages, she will be rewarded with more money, more prestige, more power. This thing we are resisting is bigger than PCC. It’s a struggle to reclaim higher education from austerity, corporatization, grift, and greed.
Next week and beyond
We resume bargaining tomorrow morning at 9am. Administration has moved the deadline for grades and is setting the stage for a delayed spring term. They also have signaled some urgency around settling by tomorrow. (We hope they are serious!) If we are going to win, we will need to care for each other, physically, financially, and spiritually. Here’s what you can expect this week:
- Oregon’s congressional delegation will deliver a letter to PCC and the federations urging a swift, fair settlement for workers.
- Members in need of financial resources may apply for unemployment benefits, the mutual aid fund, and hardship loans through AFT. The Strike Fund is set to launch later this week. More information to come.
Monday:5:00pm Rally & March: Fund Classes, Pay Workers! Location: Cascade Campus, 705 N. Killingsworth ASL interpretation provided Route is 1.0 mi
- Pickets resume Tuesday from 9am-12pm at Sylvania and Cascade ONLY
- Checkwww.pccstrike.comevery day.
Until we hear otherwise, we hold the line 