This page contains a record of the communications the Federation’s bargaining team sent to faculty during the bargaining process. Messages are ordered from most to least recent.
October 13, 2025
Dear Colleagues,
The Federation bargaining team met with the District’s team on October 10. During this session, we discussed compensation (Article 10), healthcare (Article 17), and working conditions (Article 8).
During the open session, where compensation and healthcare were discussed, the Federation continued to propose increases in compensation in line with our peers to address inflation and address compensation parity among all ECC faculty groups. The Federation presented a comparison of FT healthcare plan costs to faculty at ECC and Cerritos College, illustrating how ECC faculty receive significantly less District support than Cerritos faculty in this area. The Federation also expressed willingness to engage in a serious discussion about revenue sharing models and potential changes to healthcare systems that the District proposed if the District can meet current faculty needs with a level of total compensation that is competitive and sustainable.
We are expecting the District’s counterproposals on compensation and healthcare on October 31 in the open session.
In the closed session, the District presented their counterproposal on working conditions. We are pleased to report that the Federation and District have made substantial progress on this article. Notably, in this particular session, the District tentatively agreed to the Federation’s proposal to increase paid PT professional development hours from 3 to 10 hours per semester, marking a substantial improvement and near parity with FT faculty. Additionally, both teams have done a lot of work to clarify and standardize the language around workloads and assignment breakdowns for each faculty type. No tentatively agreed to weekly contact hour obligations have increased, and some (SHS and SRC) have decreased to levels in line with similar faculty at comparable institutions. The Federation will present our counterproposal for Article 8 on October 31 in the closed session.
The Federation’s new website is finally up and running at our new URL! Please be advised that while the site is still under construction and certain links may break in the coming weeks during maintenance, the Negotiations Page is updated and stable. Please stop by if you are interested in viewing proposals for open articles or reading completed tentative agreements.
Our next bargaining update meeting will take place on Tuesday, October 14, at 5:30 PM.
Topic: Bargaining Update Meeting
Time: October 14, 2025 at 5:30 PM - 6:30 PM
https://elcamino-edu.zoom.us/s/83301603149
We also have an upcoming General Membership meeting that will take place on Wednesday, October 15, at 6:30 PM.
Topic: General Membership Meeting
Time: October 15, 2025 at 6:30 PM-8:00 PM
BSSB 104
Our next scheduled open bargaining session is October 31, 2025, at 9 AM. We will email a link to the open session when we have it.
In solidarity,
The Federation Bargaining Team
https://sites.google.com/view/aft1388
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September 22, 2025
Dear Colleagues,
The Federation bargaining team met with the District’s team on August 29 and September 12. During those sessions, we reached tentative agreements on articles 6 and 9.
As outlined in our last communication, in our August 14 session, the Federation team presented our first proposals on compensation (Article 10) and healthcare (Article 17), including our rationale and our cost estimates/approximations. The District presented an ECC budget that was significantly improved from the last presentation they gave to us during IBB, but did not present a proposal for articles 10 and 17. The following open bargaining session on August 29 was quite short (less than 30 minutes), as the District still had no proposal. During our September 12 open bargaining session, the District presented a package (“take it or leave it”) proposal for compensation and healthcare. Their conceptual proposal cited items from our proposal that they agreed with, items that they disagreed with, and a framework for the total amount of money that they were offering for compensatory items, but largely did not contain precise, proposed language. It did, however, provide a generally complete response to our previous proposals.
For the first year of the contract, the District proposed a total of $2.1 million that would be allocated toward compensatory faculty items (i.e. salary increases, District healthcare contributions, expansion of paid PT PD hours, etc.). To frame that number, based on the District’s cost analysis methodology, if we applied all of that funding to an across the board salary increase for all faculty, it equates to a 2.70% increase, or COLA + 0.40% (COLA for FY 2025-2026 is 2.30%). There would be no money left over to alleviate healthcare increases, augment PT payment for hourly work, add steps/columns to our pay schedules, or anything else.
In contrast, the Federation’s first proposal included, among other items, a year 1 salary increase of 3.30% (COLA + 1%), the same increase that LACCD just gave to their faculty, and an increase of the current District healthcare contribution cap to $36,000 per faculty member, which is right in line with what is offered at Cerritos College. These items, which would increase our competitiveness with and comparability to nearby colleges, were estimated to cost about $4.57 million by the District, more than double the total of the District’s first offer, illustrating how far behind comparable colleges that ECC continues to be in these areas.
Following the open sessions on August 29 and September 12, the Federation and District discussed working conditions and workloads in Article 8. On September 12, the Federation presented our counterproposal on Article 8. This proposal contained multiple substantial agreements reached by the Federation and the District. To highlight one series of items, the District has agreed to the Federation’s approach to clarify and normalize workloads between faculty groups without increasing work or decreasing pay. More specifically, we are currently in agreement on workloads that do not increase the amount of work of any faculty group, explicitly decrease the technical workloads of Disabilities Specialists and SHS Faculty, and clarify existing practices regarding calendar compression and hourly pay. All of these things protect the pay and workloads of all faculty groups while making them easier to understand, calculate, and compare for the purposes of workload/pay parity.
The Federation’s website is currently undergoing maintenance and migration. We are hoping to have it running and updated soon.
Our next bargaining update meeting will take place on Thursday, September 25, at 5 PM.
Topic: Bargaining update meeting
Time: Sep 25, 2025 05:00 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada)
https://elcamino-edu.zoom.us/j/82372585980
Our next scheduled open bargaining session is October 10, 2025, at 9 AM.
In solidarity,
The Federation Bargaining Team
August 25, 2025
Dear Colleagues,
The Federation bargaining team met with the District’s team over the summer on June 6, June 20, July 21, and August 14. During those sessions, we reached tentative agreements on articles 4, 5, 11, and open bargaining ground rules.
Regarding open bargaining, thank you to everyone who communicated with the administration to support open bargaining. This is a milestone for El Camino College negotiations. We had our first open bargaining session on August 14, 2025. During the open session, the District had several administrators and consultants present an extended slide deck regarding the District’s budget disposition, which is significantly healthier than the projections and plans presented during IBB last year. The District did not present first proposals on compensation (Article 10) or healthcare (Article 17), as they stated they were not prepared to do so. Following the District’s presentation, the Federation presented the District with relevant salary comparisons to comparable Districts, a comparative study of ECC’s very low FT and PT healthcare contributions, and the conceptual objectives/reasoning for the Federation’s first proposals on compensation (Article 10) and healthcare (Article 17). After that, the District took a 2.5 hour caucus and returned to compliment the thorough, competent nature of the Federation’s proposal and reiterate that they were not prepared to negotiate further on Articles 10 and 17 during that session.
Following the open session, the Federation and District discussed the ongoing issues with the District’s mathematically incoherent proposals on Article 8. During the discussion, the District suggested reducing the pay rates of some faculty while increasing that of others to achieve some of their conceptual goals. The Federation reiterated that we are not interested in discussing pay cuts for faculty because the District cannot devise a coherent workload proposal. The District was still not prepared to respond to our Article 8 counterproposal that they received during our June 21 session. Additionally, we discussed technical bits about faculty classification (Article 6) and reached what looks like a likely TA on summer/winter session items (Article 9), pending District review and signature.
During our summer sessions, we also exchanged proposals and counterproposals on Articles 3, 8, 20, and 22. One of the themes of the District’s proposals is to significantly reduce our rights to grieve unreasonable evaluations and District policies (Administrative Procedures, or APs, and Board Policies, or BPs). The District’s speech policy, AP/BP 3900, and claims against the district, AP/BP 3810, are two examples of things that would no longer be grievable. The District is also proposing to prohibit any grievances regarding removal from the RPL. The Federation’s team is firmly opposed to giving up our rights to grieve in these areas and we encourage you to let the administration know how important it is to have these rights. We have also made progress to better align our contract with the education code.
The Federation and District proposals, including counterproposals and tentative agreements, are available on the Federation’s website. This page includes the statuses of articles and summaries of proposed changes.
Our next scheduled bargaining session is August 29, 2025. For more information, please view our website.
In solidarity,
The Federation Bargaining Team
June 5, 2025
Dear Colleagues,
We are writing today to provide a follow up on our last update regarding the Federation bargaining team’s meeting with the District’s team on May 2, 2025. At that meeting, the District presented their proposal for Article 8 (Hours and Working Conditions), but did not provide sufficiently specific information regarding calculation of load, overload, faculty pay, and work obligations for us to respond to. As a result, we asked the District for a specific set of calculations to fully ascertain the effects of the District’s proposal on faculty pay and workload. After receiving their answers, we are now able to understand and communicate what they proposed.
The District’s proposal for computing academic year calendar compression is inconsistent regarding how instructional work is currently paid and how total work hours are currently calculated. It is also internally inconsistent within their proposal. We will discuss this in hopes of further clarifying the issue to understand if they are effectively proposing instructional faculty pay cuts.
The District’s proposal increases the base load hours for most non-instructional faculty, which would have several effects. First, their proposal allows for most PT non-instructional faculty to take assignments that are larger (more hours, based on the 67% PT limit of FT load) than are currently allowable. Second, it increases the percentage of the workweek that is scheduled contact or comparable time for many non-instructional FT faculty. Third, it substantially reduces the overload pay for certain FT non-instructional faculty. Finally, their proposal appears to reduce pay for special assignment, though their math is again inconsistently reasoned. Examples follow.
Example 1.
During the fall or spring semester, a full-time librarian faculty member (C-1, Step 30, Class V – $161,661/yr) who accepts an overload assignment of an additional (beyond 100% load) 6 hours/week of library services work is currently paid a total overload contract amount of…
Total Current Overload Pay = (18-15)LHE * $110/LHE * 17.5 weeks = $5775
The District’s proposal would result in the following payment.
Total District Proposed Overload Pay = (17.5714 – 15)LHE x 17.5 x $110/LHE = $4,949.95 (This is a 14.29% decrease compared to our current contract.)
Example 2.
During the fall or spring semester, a full-time counseling faculty member (C-3, Step 30, Class V – $190,725/yr) who accepts an overload assignment of an additional (beyond 100% load) 6.5 hours/week of counseling services work is currently paid a total overload contract amount of…
Total Current Overload Pay = (18.75-15)LHE * $110/LHE * 17.5 weeks = $7218.75
The District’s proposal would result in the following payment.
Total District Proposed Overload Pay = 16 weeks x $282.86/week = $4525.76 (This is a 37.31% decrease compared to our current contract.)
Example 3.
If the Academic Senate grants a fall or spring semester stipend equal to 10% FTEF to an instructional faculty vice president serving in their body, the total dollar amount of that paid stipend is currently…
Total Current Special Assignment Pay = 0.10 * 720 hours * $85.95/h = $6188.40
The District’s proposal would result in the following payment.
Total District Proposed Special Assignment Pay = 48 hours x 85.95 per hour = $4125.60 (This is a decrease of 33.33%)
Unfortunately, after reviewing the District’s responses, we were correct in our prior assessment that the District seems to be proposing pay cuts for most faculty groups via a combination of recalculating our annual work hours/days, weekly work hours, base load hours, and weekly workload distributions. While the District has made comments that changes in pay rates may offset some of these pay cuts, they have not committed to avoiding pay cuts, nor have they been willing to discuss compensation thus far.
The Federation bargaining team remains committed to negotiating contracts with competitive compensation and benefits.
The Federation and District proposals, including counterproposals and tentative agreements, are available on the Federation’s website. This page includes the statuses of articles and summaries of proposed changes.
Our next scheduled bargaining session is June 6, 2025. For more information, please view our website.
We hope you all enjoy your well-earned summer. Please stay tuned for our communications throughout the summer, which will contain planned activities and actions for fall, as well as information about upcoming open bargaining sessions.
In solidarity,
The Federation Bargaining Team
May 7, 2025
Dear Colleagues,
The Federation’s bargaining team met with the District’s team on April 4 and May 2, 2025. During these sessions, the Federation and District discussed proposals on the following items: Open bargaining ground rules, Article 3 (Rights of the Federation), Article 4 (Intracollegiate Relations), Article 5 (Academic Freedom and Responsibility), Article 8 (Hours and Working Conditions), Article 9 (Summer and Winter Session Assignments), Article 11 (Paid Leaves), Article 12 (Unpaid Leaves), Article 13 (Sabbatical Leaves), Article 20 (Procedures for Faculty Evaluation), and Article 22 (Grievances Procedures). The Federation and District proposals, including counterproposals and tentative agreements, are available on the Federation’s website. It includes the statuses of articles and summaries of proposed changes.
We spent much of our last two bargaining sessions discussing Article 8 (Hours and Working Conditions). Both the District and Federation sunshined this article prior to the start of negotiations, which means both sides should be ready to present their proposals. On March 31, the Federation provided the District with our first proposal. On April 4, when it was time for the District’s team members to present their Article 8 proposal, they told us they had not completed their first proposal and needed to caucus. They spent 90 minutes (30% of the scheduled bargaining time for that day) working on their proposal. When they returned to the bargaining table, they presented a proposal filled with typos, duplicated language, unfinished ideas, and inconsistent math. It was not sufficiently complete to respond to, so the District’s team agreed to furnish a revised/corrected proposal by April 7, 2025. The Federation followed up with the District’s team on April 8 and April 20, inquiring about the revised proposal. No one responded. Subsequently, we relayed the above information to the BOT and President Thames. On April 30, around 10 PM, we got the District’s first completed proposal for Article 8, which they finished presenting during our May 2 session.
On May 2, the District discussed their revisions to Article 8. The most significant proposed change is to increase the workloads for nearly all faculty without, to date, any commensurate increase in pay for our next contract. The District also continues to want to delegate instruction in our dual enrollment program to faculty outside of ECC. The District did agree to our proposal to reduce the minimum days on campus per week for faculty to 2 days, which is a reduction from a 4-day minimum from just two contracts ago.
At the May 2 bargaining session, we also discussed the District’s counterproposal for open negotiations. They continue to attach many strings, including reiterating their opposition to having in-person attendees.
Open negotiations and District-proposed changes to our working conditions are critically important issues that affect all faculty. Please discuss these items with your colleagues and let the administration and BOT know how these issues affect you in your workplace. The next BOT meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, May 27, 2025.
Finally, the Federation’s bargaining team met with the District’s team and a state mediator on May 5, 2025, for mediation to discuss the compensation item from fiscal year 2024-2025 reopener bargaining. While these proceedings are confidential due to Public Employee Relations Board (PERB) requirements, we can share that we have reached a settlement with the District, which we will present to faculty for ratification shortly. After nearly a year of bargaining, the District reached a maximum offer of a 0% salary increase for fiscal year 2024-2025. The settlement we reached on May 5 is superior to this and any prior offer that the District has presented.
Our next scheduled bargaining session is June 6, 2025. For more information, please view our website.
In solidarity,
The Federation Bargaining Team
March 28, 2025
Dear Colleagues,
On March 21, 2025, the Federation’s bargaining team met with the District’s team. In response to our pressure and efforts, the District proposed a set of ground rules that offered a path for limited open bargaining. The District offered open negotiations, but only when we bargain Article 10 (Compensation) and Article 17 (Insurance Benefits). Bargaining on other articles would remain closed under their proposal.
Among the many proposed restrictions for open negotiations, the District is proposing to delay open negotiations on Articles 10 and 17 until after the completion of the 2024-2025 reopener negotiations on compensation. We are scheduled for our first mediation session for the reopener on May 5, 2025. We intend to counter with a proposal that will allow for a faster, less restrictive pathway to open bargaining at our next scheduled bargaining meeting on April 4, 2025. Please inform your colleagues about the status of open negotiations and encourage them to convey their feedback about the importance of open negotiations and having a ratified contract by June 30, 2025, to the BOT and administration.
Aside from negotiating the terms of open bargaining, we have worked on the following Articles:
Article 3 – Rights of the Federation: We have mutually agreed to basic operational changes and language updates based on updated statutes. We are still bargaining over the precise terms of office rent and release time.
Article 4 – Intercollegiate Relations: We are in discussions over modifying the language regarding the faculty handbook. We will present a counter proposal at the next meeting.
Article 8 – Working Conditions: We presented our first proposal to the District, which contained proposals to reduce workloads, increase compensation, decrease onerous requirements, and create a more equitable power sharing dynamic between faculty and administrators. We have also proposed department chairs. The District will offer a counter proposal at our next meeting.
Article 11 – Paid Leaves: The District has proposed a series of changes and updates in accordance with statute.
Article 12 – Unpaid Leaves: The District has proposed updating the section numbering.
Article 13 – Sabbaticals: The District has proposed updating the section numbering.
Article 15 – Holidays: We have tentatively agreed to an update for a holiday name.
Article 18 – Pre-Retirement Program: We have mutually agreed to updates for CalSTRS and PERS eligible FT faculty in line with updated statutes. We have reached a tentative agreement on the article.
Article 23 – Work Stoppage: We have a tentative agreement to fully abolish the article. The Federation took a two contract cycle approach to reduce contractual restrictions on our speech and assembly. In the last contract cycle, we successfully and substantially reduced restrictive language in this article. This cycle, we’ve reached a tentative agreement on removing it completely. We strongly encourage you to review the Article 23 language that existed for decades, the current version, and the newly reached tentative agreement. Given the current campus climate, removing restrictions on our speech and asserting our legal rights is as important as ever.
Our next scheduled bargaining session is April 4, 2025. For more information, please view our website.
In solidarity,
The Federation Bargaining Team
February 17, 2025
Dear Colleagues,
Welcome to the spring 2025 semester! We hope that you’ve had a positive start to 2025 and that your classes will get off to a great start this week.
As we enter the spring 2025 semester, the Federation is already underway in the bargaining process for our new contract, as our current contract expires on June 30, 2025. Additionally, the Federation is negotiating the FY 2024-2025 reopener. For the reopener, we were able to achieve substantial improvements to the PT healthcare program, which our members voted to ratify as an MOU. However, for the second item of the reopener, compensation for FY 2024–2025, we are entering mediation because after nearly a year of interest-based bargaining, the District ultimately would not offer a single dollar in salary increase to our faculty. The state-funded COLA for 2024-2025 was 1.07%.
We had our first bargaining session dedicated to our new contract on February 14, 2025, where we discussed the following articles (order requested by District):
Article 3 – Rights of the Federation
Article 18 – Pre-retirement Program
Article 21 – General Provisions
Article 24 – Instructional Technology
In discussions with the District about our preferred article progression, the Federation team asked to begin with Article 17 – Insurance Benefits (healthcare) with the goal of implementing new District healthcare contributions through an MOU before our contract expires. This goal would ensure that new, augmented District contributions to our healthcare costs are in place when our current contract expires so that we are not stuck, again, covering a larger difference between the old District contributions and total healthcare premium costs should we not have a contract approved by the Board of Trustees (BOT) by July 1, 2025. To that end, the Federation has a healthcare proposal ready, but the District responded that they are not prepared to bargain on financial items and could not provide a specific time frame when they would be prepared. The District’s position is curious because we have been engaged in compensation/healthcare bargaining with the District for our FY 2024-2025 reopener since the beginning of last year, and because our administrators have been meeting with each other frequently for budget planning.
We have also reiterated the broad faculty interest in open bargaining, which would allow all faculty to observe the conversations that happen at the bargaining table firsthand. Open bargaining for this contract was first formally communicated in our request-to-bargain (sunshine) memo submitted to the District in writing on November 1, 2024. However, the District’s team members took the position that they were unaware that we wanted to bargain openly and needed to discuss the open format first with the Board of Trustees on Wednesday, February 19, 2025. The District’s team members emphasized that they would be opposed to any form of recordings.
Our next scheduled bargaining session is March 21, 2025. We are hopeful that the District’s bargaining team will, with your encouragement, agree to get started on Article 17 (healthcare) and invite our faculty to open bargaining. Please consider commenting at the BOT meeting on February 19, 2025, regarding the importance of timely healthcare bargaining (5 PM, open session comment) and/or open bargaining (4 PM, closed session comment). For additional information and assistance, please contact Kelsey Iino (kiino@elcamino.edu) or the Federation (eccfederation@gmail.com).
Federation Team:
Laura Saldarriaga, FT Chemistry
John Baranski, FT History
Laila Dellapasqua, PT ESL
Kelsey Iino, FT Counseling
Ahrien Johnson, CFT Representative
Nic McGrue, FT Law
Darcie McClelland, FT Biology
Troy Moore, FT Chemistry
Joe Weichman, PT Robotics
District Team:
Jane Miyashiro, VPHR
Randy Erickson, District Legal Counsel
Carlos Lopez, VPAA
Kristina Martinez, Acting Dean, Enrollment Services
Katie Sundara, Associate Dean, ITEC
In solidarity,
The Federation Bargaining Team
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