At last Friday’s bargaining session we continued to talk about class assignments for PT faculty, which is at the very heart of our commitment to job security for part-time faculty. As a reminder, our proposal is that after FT and MYCs loads have been met, Deans should assign classes to PT faculty based on step level.
By the end of the hour-long conversation, the College was flailing, trying to explain why PCC should be an outlier in the region by refusing to assign classes based on seniority. They asked for a 30-minute caucus to regroup, but after an hour and a half they still hadn’t returned, so our team called it a day.
We want to recognize our part time bargaining team members Erik Johnsen and Kris Fink, who are holding the line for part-time faculty.
“It’s not radical. No, what is radical is not having [seniority] matter. Because it’s quantifiable in ways that are reassuring to people and help them understand and not have to go into a vortex of “why am I not good enough.” And you want to talk about being a transformative workplace? If you’re spending each term wondering why you didn’t get this class, that’s just not a healthy work environment…If you understand the system, you can function a lot better, and focus on your students without worrying about whether or not you can pay your rent next term.”
– Kris Fink