Elgin CC Adjuncts Lose Option to Self-Insure

by TAA Staff WITH MANAGED HEALTH care and retroactive pay increases included, Elgin Community College released its tentative two-year contract agreement with its faculty union on July 17th. ECC's faculty union voted to ratify the contract that same week, and shortly thereafter the board of trustees did the same. Though several issues, including pay increases for both full-timers and adjuncts, appear to be resolved, others were not. In the new contract, full-time faculty will have to choose managed care, and adjunct teachers will not be allowed to purchase health insurance. "It's a pretty good two-year contract," union President David Sujak said. "But all it does is buy us some time." Faculty members have been working without a new contract since Jan. 1, 2001. Talks broke off in mid-December when the two sides could not a reach common ground on insurance, salaries and workload equity. On Feb. 6, 2001 teachers walked off the job for the first time in ECC's 52-year history. Faculty members returned to their classrooms a week later with what they thought was a tentative contract agreement. However, that deal fell through a week later when both sides realized they had different interpretations over retirement savings. College instructors were once again ready to walk off the job again, but on March 14 both sides reached an early-morning arbitration agreement to avoid the second strike, which threatened to cancel the semester. Then in June, just prior to an arbitrator's intercession, the two sides reached the current tentative agreement. Several of the issues, including those regarding pay increases for full-time and adjunct faculty, medical coverage for retiring faculty and overtime pay for laboratory hours were the same as those in the February contract. But others, including medical coverage, changed, and, according to Sujak, may present problems in the future. The union, which was in favor of forming a committee with ECC to study several insurance options, has said it does not like the managed care option. But on July 1, the college's self-insurance, which ECC said was too expensive to continue, expired, and because a committee never formed, there was no other option. But the college still plans on forming a committee and reviewing its insurance plan throughout the year, said Carole Akemann, ECC's managing director of planning and marketing. Another hanging issue concerns retirement savings. Sujak said the union would like to see some of the money the college would save when faculty--many who make more than $80,000--retire early and are replaced by younger teachers who might earn half that. The new contract does not touch on this subject, mainly because a large number of faculty will not retire until the contract expires, Akemann said. This, then, leaves several issues up for negotiation in the next contract that would follow this one. Negotiation for that contract could begin in the fall of 2002, Sujak said. "Next year is going to be an ugly year," he said.