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Ponderings of the President
By Ira Lansing
I always say somewhat seriously that, where matters of the College are
concerned, I am the last to know. Many people find this hard to believe,
given my position with the United Professors of Marin. Yet our institution
has so many little "nooks and crannies" where issues can smolder or
blossom that often when something gets to me, it has been going on for
quite some time. So when I now say there is nothing for me to write about,
no pressing issues (a lot of old ones, though), don't be surprised.
Perhaps the most startling news is that the meetings of the College Board
of Trustees are finishing in a decent amount of time. By "decent" I mean
two to 2-1/2 hours, and not the 4-6 hour marathons of the past. It may be
the new Board president runs a more efficient meeting; perhaps the new
trustees do not feel compelled to ramble on inexorably (yes, give them
time to develop!). Rather than leave our newsletter editor with a mass of
white space to fill, I will take this opportunity to remind you of some
recent and upcoming events.
The early retirement incentive was snatched up by 17 eligible faculty,
including some on phased-in early retirement. This means the reopener
package that was negotiated will be implemented in its entirety. There
will be a slight salary increase retroactive to January, 2004 based on the
savings from the retirees effective last December. The change in employee
copayments for office visits and prescriptions will also take place.
However, the savings to the District resulting in these higher employee
costs will be returned to the faculty in the form of a salary increase,
retroactive to February, but not effective until later this semester.
Don't go book the world cruise, it will probably be less than 1%, but
should cover your increased out-of-pocket medical copays. Then in
September there will be another salary adjustment, retroactive to July,
2004, based on the savings from the remaining retirees who will leave at
the end of this semester. And of course, bargaining for the new contract
that expires June 30 will begin this spring as well.
You (UPM members only) should have already received a contract survey
requesting your input on items to bring to the table for negotiations. All
those complaints, requests, calls, changes and preferences that you have
mentioned to me and other members of the Executive Council should be
submitted. If you don't tell us now what you want, you will have to wait
another three years.
Finally, there is the upcoming convention of the California Federation of
Teachers, to be held at the Universal Sheraton in Southern California. UPM
will be sending a small delegation to participate. Solicitations to
participate as a delegate were distributed to all UPM members only, with a
deadline early this month. The highlight of the convention is often the
meeting of the Community College Council (CCC), a subgroup of the larger
body. At this meeting AFT locals from around the State get together,
transact CCC business and share their stories, what's going on in their
district. It is always good to hear these reports from other locals; it
provides a real perspective on one's own local problems. I am sure there
will be many tales to tell from our delegates, so watch this publication
for further information.
Until then, may your semester go smoothly and your energy remain high.
Stay informed, be in touch.
News From Beyond Marin
News from Beyond Marin
Union Members Join Rally as AFL-CIO Endorses Kerry
Hundreds of union members and staff were on hand for a rally at the
AFL-CIO's headquarters in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 19 after the labor
federation's general board endorsed Sen. John Kerry for the Democratic
presidential nomination. "Today is the beginning of the end of the Bush
administration," Kerry told the crowd.
Standing under a huge banner that read, "America Needs Good Jobs," the
Massachusetts Democrat said it is time to have a president who will "put
our country back on track, on the road of prosperity, the road of
fairness, the road of jobs." He criticized Bush for giving tax breaks to
"Benedict Arnold" corporations and CEOs who send jobs overseas. "I will
insist on real worker protections and real environmental protections in
trade.... And unlike George Bush, I will enforce them," he said.
AFL-CIO president John Sweeney introduced Kerry as a "friend of working
families" with a 91 percent lifetime AFL-CIO voting record. "The time has
come to unite behind one man, one leader, one candidate," Sweeney said.
"He will be our champion in the White House."
The rally featured members from four local unions around the
country-including Washington Teachers Union member and special education
teacher Brenda Jenkins-who told personal stories connected to the
Democrats' top-priority issues such as overtime pay, affordable health
insurance, the loss of good jobs and education. "It's time we had an
administration that puts children first," Jenkins told the crowd.
Bush's Economic Blueprint: A Really Scary Movie
The president offers some frightening - and revealing - ideas about jobs,
healthcare, prescription drugs, taxes and entitlement programs in his
400-plus page policy blueprint, "2004 Economic Report of the President,"
presented to Congress earlier this month. Chances are that many of those
ideas won't be repeated on the campaign trail, however.
Among his suggestions for improving the economy is outsourcing U.S. jobs
to countries with cheaper labor. It also suggests less healthcare
insurance coverage for preventive care; consumers should instead foot the
bill for routine dental care, annual medical exams, vaccinations and
"low-expense items, such as an office visit to the doctor for a sore
throat." To illustrate the point, the administration draws an analogy
between health and automobile insurance. "If automobile insurance were
structured like the typical health policy, it would cover annual
maintenance, tire replacement and possibly even car washes."
The report also explains that Americans should expect to pay more for
prescription drugs than consumers in other countries, ... because "only
the health expenditures in the innovating country will include the costs
of research and development."
The Bush administration used its 2004 economic report to declare "reform
of entitlement programs" as the most pressing fiscal issue confronting the
nation, and Social Security is "an appropriate place to begin," says the
report, by containing costs through personal retirement accounts.
AFT Web Site Now Has Online Voter Registration
When a national election can be decided by just 537 votes, we no longer
can question how essential it is for each of us to vote. ...AFT wants to
make registering to vote as easy as possible. ... AFT members and their
families can register to vote quickly and securely through a new program
called Votenet. Visitors to the union's home page,
www.aft.org , will see a special link to
a page explaining how Votenet works. It also links the visitor to Votenet....
[or to navigate directly to the site, use this URL:
ht
Membership Matters
Shouldn't this be the month you consider becoming a member of the
United Professors of Marin? There's a certain ambiguity in the air; change
is afoot. With membership in the union, however, you're assured a voice in
how the UPM faces change. And throughout it all, you're backed by the
strength of the UPM and its affiliates, the California Federation of
Teachers and the American Federation of Teachers.
In addition, as a member, you have free access to the personal benefits of
membership, such as contact with attorneys, discounts on purchases, and
group rates for many different kinds of insurance. Check out the
advertisement to the right, for example.
Join today.
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Phased-In Retirees Added to the List
Seventeen to Retire
In what is likely the most successful
retirement incentive program ever conducted in the district, seventeen
members of the faculty have declared their intention to retire. According to
the terms negotiated between the UPM and the District, each of the 17 will
receive $25,000. Two people on the list are those who had retired by the end
of last semester, three had been on phased-in retirement, and twelve are
those who made the decision recently.
Within days of the deadline for filing for retirement, the number of
potential retirees hovered around 10, the threshold for the incentive to
kick in. If no others were to come forward, those ten would have received
$20,000 each. But in response to UPM members' urging, the Executive Council
held a general meeting at which those present voted to have the UPM
negotiate the addition of people on phased-in retirement.
As part of an STRS plan, a member of the faculty may "gradually" retire by
working, for example, half time for two semesters or full time for one
semester, over a period of about 10 years. Such faculty continue to
contribute to retirement, and the District pays them full benefits.
Originally, the Early Retirement Incentive excluded these people from the
incentive, but the UPM Negotiating Team presented the idea of changing the
plan's requirements to include them. Representatives of the District agreed,
and a sidebar was signed late in January. Now that the phased-in retirees
have declared their intention to retire fully and to join in the incentive,
they are no longer eligible for the STRS plan.
The success of the incentive brings both the good and the bad. Salary
savings that are realized as a result of the many retirements will be
directed into the salary schedule for those who remain (as reported last
month), so faculty will see an increase in pay, albeit a relatively small
amount, soon. More significantly, those of us remaining will notice a huge
change around the campuses as so many of our friends and colleagues leave
their posts
Grievance Officer's Report
by Arthur Lutz
The Hawthorne Fallacy
In the late 1920's,
psychologists from the Harvard business school undertook a study of worker
productivity at the Western Electric Hawthorne Plant in Cicero, Illinois.
The results came to be known as the Hawthorne Effect, and profoundly changed
management policies throughout the nation.
Over a period of several years, the experimenters at Hawthorne periodically
altered working conditions at the plant and carefully observed the employee
response. What the team discovered was that it didn't matter whether they
increased or decreased illumination in the workplace, or granted more or
fewer coffee breaks, or allowed longer or even shorter rest periods. Every
time a change was made in working conditions, any change, worker
productivity increased. Even regressive changes resulted in an attendant
increase in productivity.
These unexpected findings seemed to indicate that productivity was not
related to objective conditions in the workplace, but to some other factor,
and the team concluded that the continued increase in output was the result
of the workers' feelings of affirmation and importance because they were
being closely observed and highly valued as part of an important research
project.
These findings made social science history and psychology textbooks ever
since have conveyed the notion that worker satisfaction, and hence
productivity, does not correlate with better wages, benefits or working
conditions, but is largely a matter of whether workers feel important and
involved.
And so a whole culture of motivational management has arisen that tries to
develop techniques to make workers feel good about themselves. Never mind
that their pay might be low and their working conditions onerous, if
employees can be convinced that they are important and appreciated, their
job satisfaction will increase and they will work harder and faster.
The Hawthorne study is a perfect example of how social science research can
be employed in the service of class interests in order to justify
substandard wages, meager benefits, disagreeable working conditions and
anti-union activity. Fortunately, most workers have rejected this attempt by
management to shift the problems away from the workplace to the therapist's
couch and have, when possible, joined labor unions to improve their working
conditions and protect their rights.
Recently, a group of investigators revisited the Hawthorne protocols and
discovered that the conclusions reached were based on questionable data.
Only five workers took part in the original study and two of them were
replaced midway for insubordination and low output. Yet despite these
deficiencies, management persists in its assertion that objective conditions
in the workplace are less important than subjective attitudes when it comes
to worker productivity.
Here at the College of Marin, our administration also seems to believe that
attitude trumps substance. For years they have promoted and supported
participation in feel-good motivational seminars, communication workshops
and conflict resolution sessions with high priced facilitators, in hopes
that they can induce attitude change and reduce faculty dissatisfaction.
And now once again, in an attempt to dispel faculty disquiet, our
administration has proposed yet another grand get-together between managers
and faculty representatives.
None of us has any objection to better communications, but there are
substantive issues that our administration has not been willing to address
and which are the cause of faculty disaffection, and it would be fruitless
to participate in discussions if they are just another exchange of feelings
or a replay of the cookies and party-game chat sessions that occurred during
the Middleton era.
One of the reasons that United Professors of Marin has been so successful in
its negotiations with the District is that UPM's discussions with management
are substantive and result in enforceable collective bargaining agreements.
In other words, there is legal accountability. Perhaps this is not possible
or permissible for our Academic Senate, but at the very least our faculty
should expect that our participating Senators forget about feelings and
demand substantive issue-based discussions with some mechanism that will
insure compliance.
The Hawthorne study was fallacious because it offered new-agey solutions for
very real problems in the workplace. Let's not repeat that fallacy at the
College of Marin.
CRA Trust Issues
By CRA Trustee Bernadene
Allen
Permanent faculty who retire with at least
10 years of qualified service in the District can expect to receive monthly
Certificated Retirement Account [CRA] Trust payments either at retirement or
upon reaching the age of 70, depending upon date of hire.
Retirees who meet the eligibility requirements listed below receive CRA
Trust benefits computed on $100 per month of the value of 1989 dollars.
Currently fully vested eligible retirees receive $166 a month. The portion
of the full benefit received by a retiree is determined by the number of
years of qualified service to the District.
Age at Years of Benefit
Retirement Service Amount
55 and older 10 50%
13 80%
15 fully vested 100%
CRA Eligibility Requirements
Age and Years of Service. To receive benefits from the CRA Trust fund,
retirees must be at least 55 years old and have a minimum of ten years of
qualified service in the District.
Written Notice. Each eligible member must submit a written statement of
eligibility to the CRA Trust before receiving monthly CRA funds. Payment of
benefits will begin on the first day of the month following eligible
retirement; therefore, it behooves one to inform the CRA at least one month
before retiring: CRA Trust, P.O. Box 503, Kentfield, CA 94914.
Retired Faculty hired prior to 7/1/1988 are eligible to receive monthly CRA
funds when they are 70 years old; prior to age 70, they receive District
medical coverage.
Retired faculty hired after 7/1/1988 receive no District medical coverage
upon retirement, but they become eligible to receive monthly CRA funds if at
retirement they meet
the age and years of service requirement.
Disability Retirement. A unit member with at least ten years of qualified
service who takes a disability retirement will receive 100% of the monthly
benefit upon notifying the Trust in writing of their eligibility.
Death Benefits before retirement. If a member with at least ten years of
qualified service dies before retiring, that member's beneficiary [spouse or
domestic partner] will receive a lump sum representing the member's and
District's contributions to the CRA Trust. However, if the member dies with
fewer than ten years of qualified service, CRA benefits are forfeited and
the contributions remain in the Trust, as required by Federal law.
Death Benefits after retirement. If a unit member with 10 years of qualified
service dies after retirement, before or after receiving CRA benefits, the
monthly CRA funds will be provided to the member's spouse or domestic
partner, as determined by the member. The benefits will cease upon the death
of the spouse or domestic partner.
Functions of CRA
In 1987, the CoM faculty formed the CRA to mitigate the financial strain of
rising medical insurance costs. The CRA Trust is an independent operation,
not a formal part of the UPM. Currently the CRA Trust is distributing
monthly funds to 35 retirees plus 5 beneficiaries.
Trustees. The CRA Trust is governed by five CRA Trustees including the UPM
president, 2 members appointed by the UPM Executive Council, and two members
elected at large by active and retired unit members in yearly elections.
Current Trustees are CRA president Ted Bright, Ira Lansing, Russ Ridge,
Millard Morgan and Bernadene Allen.
CRA Trustees share the responsibility for monitoring the financial integrity
of the Trust and deciding whether increases in cost of living should be
applied to the Trust account, perhaps increasing members' contributions.
Originally the CRA Trust was funded by contributions from active permanent
unit members and from District funds; presently, the District pays the
monthly CRA contributions.
Trust Fund investments are managed by Standard Insurance Company of Oregon,
and as of 12/31/2003 have a value of $1,381,674.
Faculty Responsibilities. It is the responsibility of all permanent faculty
members to keep an up-to-date beneficiary form on file with the Trust CRA
Beneficiary form may be obtained from the UPM Executive Secretary in the UPM
office. Also, retirees are strongly advised to inform the CRA Trust of
change of address, as currently we Trustees are having difficulty contacting
a few retirees.
For further details, consult a CRA Trustee or read your copy of the CRA
Trust Fund Information Brochure, which was distributed to permanent faculty
when Trust was formed in 1987 or when you were hired.
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