We have been getting a lot of questions from members about the “transition” of PCC’s Labor Relations Director Ron Stormer, just two months after starting his job. If you’re keeping track, this is the second Labor Relations Director to resign within months of being hired, and the fourth person to fill that role within the last year.
We don’t know why administrative team leaders keep resigning, but we are not letting their disarray distract us from our goal of building a better PCC. In fact, the chaos we are witnessing from management right now has made it even more clear that our union is going to have to lead the way to a great contract and better learning conditions for our students.
Here is what happened in bargaining last Friday, right before Mr. Stormer offered his resignation. (If you haven’t already, you may want to read Bargaining Update #2 to see where we left things last week.)
We started the meeting by continuing to seek clarification about the College’s position on observers. After a back-and-forth between PCC’s Labor Relations Specialist Vincent Blanco and Mr. Stormer, who insisted FFAP owed the College a counterproposal (we don’t) and suggested FFAP was reading management’s proposals wrong (we weren’t), Mr. Stormer said the College was prepared to proceed without an agreement on ground rules. They are within their rights to do this, but it would not resolve anything related to the most contentious issues: public meeting law and observers.
When we reminded them of this, Mr. Stormer became visibly upset and began talking over our team. Sensing that the conversation was not going to be productive, FFAP called a caucus.
When we came back, we were told that Mr. Stormer needed to “step away” and that Kurt Simonds and Kelly Schwartz were taking over as administration’s spokespeople. They again asked us for a counterproposal, and we again asked them to resubmit their March 3 proposal without missing text and formatting errors.
Administration seemed confused and exasperated by this, even claiming they did not have a copy of their own proposal. Kurt Simonds reiterated that we don’t need ground rules to begin negotiating, and when Vincent reminded them of our position on public meetings, he responded by saying, “You’re talking to the wrong guy.” Mr. Simonds accused FFAP of “gotcha stuff” and called our position on public meetings a “veiled and empty threat.”
Finally, administration suggested they would be open to observers under limited circumstances—i.e. a report out from a joint subcommittee. We had a lot of questions about that (what work will be moved to subcommittee, would those meetings be open to non-bargaining team members, how would we ensure access, transparency, etc.). We ended the meeting by reminding the administration team of our shared commitment to a successful process, and suggesting that the PCC Board meeting format (a webinar where board members are panelists) would work well for bargaining meetings.
On Monday, we learned that Ron Stormer had resigned, would no longer be leading negotiations, and the College was returning to its original plan of hiring the law firm Miller Nash to lead the College’s team. Some members have expressed concern that this represents a more cutthroat stance from administration, but many FFAP leaders have worked with Miller Nash to resolve grievances, and found them to be pragmatic and collaborative problem solvers. We hope this is a sign that the administration is finally ready to get to work.
The administration team has requested that we cancel Friday’s bargaining meeting to give them a chance to regroup. We will reconvene on Friday, March 24.
Thanks to everyone who participated in our email action last week. More than 700 emails were sent to demand both in person and remote observers at all bargaining sessions! This action was a powerful statement that these demands aren’t just coming from the bargaining team but our whole union. We will continue to advocate for an open and transparent process.