Maintain a safe classroom climate amidst a divisive election

From our WEA Riverside Council Equity Team:

(WEA Riverside is our regional union council)

As educators, we understand that the upcoming election is causing a great deal of stress and anxiety in our schools and communities. We encourage you to engage with students, families, and colleagues in ways that recognize and affirm the challenge of building and sustaining supportive relationships at a time when our country and community can feel very divided. 

While you know your students best, the following recommendations may be beneficial: 

• Focus on empathy: no matter what happens, some people will be excited and some will be disappointed. Remind students that we are all part of a community and that being mindful of others is essential to our shared well-being.

• Remember it is not our job to provide guidance for how students should think/ feel, but to support them in growing their independence and identity while providing a welcoming learning place for all. Remind them that participating in civic discourse and engagement is a good thing and a fundamental part of being a citizen.

• Share your expectations with students before the election, so that they can come to school on November 6th confident that their ideas and identities will be respected.

• Continue to build communities with students so they can learn to work together and support each other no matter their politics, ideology, or background.

While we may personally feel division during this election, it is important to remember that all of us want what is best for our students. We can and should model how to act around others of differing political ideals. 

WPEA rejects state's TA, back to bargaining table

With an historic turnout, on September 30th WPEA Higher Education members voted against ratifying the 2025-2027 tentative agreements between the Office of Financial Management (OFM) and WPEA.

Context: In early September after months of negotiations between the OFM and the WPEA bargaining team (comprised of volunteers representing each college, with Courtney Braddock representing staff here at Clark), the state proposed a 3 percent compensation increase to begin July 1st, 2025 and a 2 percent compensation increase to begin July 1st, 2026.

WFSE, a separate local union who represents staff at other colleges accepted this proposal and entered into a tentative agreement. For context, WPEA represents staff at 15 colleges across the state.

However, the WPEA Higher Education group disagreed with this decision, rejected the TA and organized a no-on-ratification campaign stating that these small increases equated to pay cuts, considering that the actual increases in our cost of living over the past few years have easily exceeded the compensation increases offered by the OFM.

For clarification: WFSE is a separate union who bargains with the state (OFM) on behalf of 50,000 state workers which include staff at some colleges. WFSE did ratify their agreement and their negotiations are over. However, WPEA members did not ratify their agreements, so they will now return to the bargaining table.

What's next:

• Wear blue on Wednesdays
• To keep up with events as they unfold, WPEA provides updates on their 2024 Bargaining page: https://www.wpea.org/2024bargaining.html 

Here are the final results of the ratification votes:

Higher Education (WPEA at 13 higher ed institutions)

NOT Ratified

9% Yes 91% No

General Government (different unions/different contracts/include DOC, DOL, Library, etc. workers)

NOT Ratified

18.1% Yes 81.9% No

Highline College (individual contract – not covered by “Higher Ed” contract)

NOT Ratified

5.2% Yes 94.8% No

Yakima Valley College (individual contract – not covered by “Higher Ed” contract)  

Ratified

62% Yes 38% No

WPEA coalitions include (but are not limited to) Higher Education, General Government, Highline College, and Yakima Valley College. These specific groups are highlighted above, because they voted at the same time on the same TA’s.

Check out this benefit!

Perhaps you or someone you know (part-time faculty member, neighbor, family member, student) can benefit from the Washington Working Family Tax Credit. It's a benefit offered by Washington state any time of the year, not just during tax season. You just need to qualify. It's a tax credit for individuals or families, and more than 400,000 qualified Washingtonians have missed out on collecting this benefit in the past year. Check out Sydney Brahmavar's video below to see if you or someone you know qualifies. 

You can also check out this quick slideshow for the details. 

Higher Ed Progress at 2024 WEA RA

This year's RA lasted into the wee hours of night and into Sunday morning but it was productive for Higher Education.      

Continuing Resolution Amendment 7 passed - this was to update the existing Continuing Resolution E-28 to match current language and update it on adjunct benefits:

• The Washington Education Association believes that part-time faculty must be: 1. compensated at a comparable rate of pay to full-time faculty with the same qualifications for performing instructional work and that this should be standard across all Washington State Community and Technical Colleges; and 2. compensated for noninstructional duties.
• The Association supports maintaining equal benefits for part-time and full-time faculty working at least fifty percent (50%) of a full-time load including: health benefits, tuition waivers, life and disability insurance, and retirement. 

Continuing Resolution Amendment 8 passed - this was to add the bolded sentence:

The Washington Education Association believes that higher education associations are confronted with increasingly complex problems, and that the success or failure of higher education associations has direct implications for the entire Association. The Association also believes that programs should continue to be promoted which will serve to strengthen the operation of higher education associations. The Association further believes that the majority of college courses should be taught by tenured faculty, and that each higher education institution’s faculty workforce should reflect the racial and cultural demographics of its community.

We also proposed New Business Item 47 - which passed at 12:02am on Sunday

That WEA will support an Organizing and Bargaining Training for Higher Education locals with the goals of increasing membership (particularly for adjunct members) and strengthening the locals through bargaining support. This support will include research staff support to create a document with all contract issues for each of the CTCs, similar to the data that is available for our K-12 locals.

Click here for a complete list of Continuing Resolutions of the WEA.

Part-time Faculty: You have a Union

CCAHE is the Clark College Association for Higher Education (the Clark faculty union) - 95 percent of our full-time faculty are CCAHE members. 

Many part-time faculty are also members. Our dues are some of the lowest in the state ~$14 each paycheck. Enroll today so that you can take full advantage of the benefits your union membership provides.

You can read about those benefits on our Membership page and enroll online here, or access the enrollment form with this QR code:

Part-time faculty contract wins clarified

Our contract wins for part-time faculty include:

Win 1: Pay for trainings - Five hours at the Other Assignment rate for part-time faculty who complete the Higher Ed Works training and two hours at the Other Assignment rate for part-time faculty who complete their two hours of PPI training. 

• How to get paid: The contract language reads, "Part-time faculty shall submit their training hours by the 15th of the final month in the quarter for which they are to be compensated."
• Part-time faculty should submit these hours to their unit's operation manager. 
• Also, our last contract required part-time faculty to submit their training for both Higher Ed Works and PPI simultaneously in order to be paid. Now, part-time faculty can be compensated for each training individually.

Win 2: Pay for required dept/unit meetings - Associate faculty have for years been required to attend at least one department or instructional unit meeting per quarter. Now, they will be paid at the Other Assignment rate per hour for attending these meetings.  

• How to get paid: The contract reads, "Part-time faculty shall submit their meeting hours by the 15th of the final month in the quarter for which they are to be compensated."
• Report your meeting hours to your respective unit operations manager.

Win 3: Pay for attending meetings - Part-time faculty will be paid at the Other Assignment rate for attending department meetings, division meetings, unit meetings, CCAHE meetings, and contractual committee meetings. (However, for other college-wide meetings, the compensation must be approved by the dean of the respective unit.)  

• How to get paid: Report your meeting hours to your respective unit operations manager.

Each instructional unit operates differently. Please be patient and try to work with the unit operations manager and/or dean as we all figure out how to implement this new contract language. Your understanding will go a long way in maintaining good relations with staff. 

New Union Office & t-shirts

CCAHE & WPEA have opened a Union Office in SCI 110. Let us know if you'd like to volunteer to keep the lights on and answer basic questions one or two days each week at the Union Office. (This would be a good opportunity for a part-time faculty member to learn more about the union and utilize a quiet place to work in a spacious office that's furnished with coffee, tea, snacks, fridge and microwave.) 

We'll also be distributing new union t-shirts later this fall in a few different styles - traditional t-shirts, capped sleeve t-shirts (see below) and maybe tank tops. The Senate agreed on "Higher Ed Workers Unite" as it's inclusive of staff as well as faculty. A sign up sheet for sizes/styles will be released soon.