The entire Pierce College faculty will enjoy a 4.6 percent salary increase as early as their Sept. 28 paychecks, but part-time teachers with heavy workloads will be receiving an extra differential. The American Federation of Teachers, an affiliated international union representing more than 1.4 million teachers, negotiated a $2 million increase from the Los Angeles Community College District to adjunct (part-time) salaries for 2007-2008, effective July 1, 2007. Part-time faculty members that teach 12- and 15-hour loads will receive an estimated $3.20 extra per hour, in an effort to bring these teachers closer to the pay that 18- and 21-hour adjunct teachers receive.The announcement was made at the Pierce Faculty Guild Luncheon Meeting Sept. 20, when over sixty faculty members were gathered in the Faculty Caf√© at 12:45 p.m. to hear and discuss salary increases and the details of the California Community College Initiative, a three-part proposition slated for the ballot in February 2008.While all school faculty is represented by the AFT, membership is optional. The Pierce College Faculty Guild Chapter is one of ten faculty chapters comprising the AFT College Guild, Local 1521. Affected faculty members that taught in the summer after July 1 will receive the differential they would have earned had it been honored at the time. Full-time faculty and certain departments such as agriculture and nursing will not receive the differential. Certain other faculty members such as counselors and librarians will not receive the differential either. Professor Kathy Daruty, a full-time instructor of business administration, commented on the adjunct increase.”On the whole I support the union, but I must tell you that I come in and I teach a night class and my husband teaches the same hours I do and because he’s adjunct, he gets paid alot more than I do,” stated Daruty. “Throughout the state of California, your adjuncts are the people who are really keeping higher education afloat but they are underpaid and don’t get benefits. It allows for more flexibility across the board.”Bill de Rubertis, president of the Pierce College Faculty Guild Chapter, stressed the importance of the faculty’s pay equality. “We negotiated the extra $2 million to provide a greater degree of equity for those teaching 12- and 15-hour disciplines because, when you think about it objectively, you can see that the people teaching 12- and 15-hour disciplines are not able to make as much money as people teaching 18- and 21-hour disciplines,” explained Rubertis. “It was an attempt to provide a greater degree of equality amongst the adjuncts.” As part of the same agreement, the LACCD also agreed to pay the full cost of the Health Benefits Program for all active and retired employees as well as their dependents and survivors. The cost is around $4.6 million.Another issue discussed was the California Community College Initiative, on the ballot February 5, 2008. This is a three-pronged initiative that would benefit the entire community college system in California, and the students enrolled at these colleges.If the initiative is passed, the cost per unit would be reduced to $15, and future fee increases would be more difficult to pass.”The only reason fees went down from $26 to $20 was because we filed the initiative,” stated Carl Friedlander, president of the AFT Local 1521.As well, the California community colleges would be separated from the K-12 system, so that funding for the colleges would not be determined by the same growth factors as the K-12 system, as outlined in Proposition 98 which passed in 1988. Presently, if K-12 enrollment falters, funding for both K-12 and the community colleges decreases.”We want to be able to determine our own fate,” declared Rubertis. “Elementary schools shouldn’t be determining whether or not you guys receive the classes you need to graduate.”Lastly, the percentage of revenues from the state to the colleges would be stabilized at around 10.5 percent. The California community colleges were originally supposed to receive 11 percent of the money from Proposition 98, but the number so far has been anywhere from 9 percent to a little over 10 percent. “We knew it would be way too controversial if we tried to insist on what was promised when Prop 98 was passed, so we just decided, ‘let’s just go from where we are right now’,” explained Rubertis. “We’re not asking for the original share, we just want it to be stabilized from this point. Presently we’re at 10.5 percent, that’s what we want. We want to lock it in, and be done with it.” The small percentage of funding that hasn’t been honored would amount to about $40 million for the community colleges, and around $4 million for Pierce. “We’ve had a couple years of good funding,” stated Friedlander. “Growth is up about 4 percent, but the state budget only provided us enough for 2 percent growth. If we don’t pass the initiative, we won’t have funding for growth over the next couple of years.” The initiative will not raise taxes if passedMarshall “Mark” Drummond, chancellor of the LACCD, was unable to attend the luncheon meeting. He has accepted an invitation to the luncheon meeting occurring February 15, tentatively.