Victor Valley Adjuncts Prepare to Hold Election

WITH CLASSES RESUMING the 285 part-time faculty at Victor Valley Community College will soon have the chance to cast a ballot for union representation, which might help them gain benefits such as sick leave.

Two unions, the California Teacher’s Association and the American Federation of Teachers, are gathering support cards from VVC’s approximately 285 part-time or adjunct faculty to show there is enough interest to hold an election to unionize.

Not only will the cards guarantee an election, but they will put each union on the ballot.

The ballot would contain three options for the part-timers — the choice of AFT, CTA or no representation, said Jack Robinson, a part-time English professor at VVC and the president of Part-Time Faculty United.

The two unions started vying for the part-time professors’ support in February 2002. At that time AFT opposed a vote by the college board to officially include the part-timers into CTA, which represents the full-time faculty.

In March 2003, the Public Employee Relations Board ruled that the VVC board did not have the authority to include the part-time faculty into the full-time union without an election.

Robinson is busy gathering cards in support of AFT. He must gather at least 50 percent plus one of the part-timers’ approval to get the election.

“We’re almost there; I’d say within the next week we’ll be there,” he said.

Once Robinson has gathered the cards, he sends them to PERB, who will verify they represent a majority of the adjunct faculty. If they match with the employment numbers from VVC, then an election will follow. The cards must be in by Feb. 15 for the election to be this semester, Robinson said.

“We feel we do have the forces to have the election,” he said.

CTA is also gathering cards to show that part-time faculty members want its representation.

There is also the option of submitting cards to VVC’s board, and it determining whether there is adequate proof that part-time faculty want CTA to represent them at the bargaining table or if an election is needed, said Ray Barney, the chapter services consultant for the Community College’s Association of CTA.

“I believe if the part-timers and full-timers are represented by different unions, it would put us against each other,” said Debra Blanchard, the president of the Victor Valley College Association, the local college chapter of CTA.

Blanchard worries that the bargaining units would be going after the same pool of salary and benefit funds, which would cause problems.

CTA already has a negotiating relationship with the college administration, while AFT would have to start new, Blanchard said.
When AFT fought the part-timers’ inclusion into CTA, it made the faculty association unable to fight for part-timers for the past year and a half, Blanchard said.

Robinson believes the two faculties would get along fine with different representation. It also would make it clear that part-time and full-time faculty have different issues, Robinson said.

The part-time faculty want office hours and sick leave, which in the past have gotten no attention from CTA, Robinson said. He hopes for better from AFT.