NEGOTIATIONS UPDATE:  ARTICLE 12 REOPENER 

May 16, 2024

Attention Faculty: 

Currently the PCC Faculty Association is negotiating the Article 12 Reopener (Salary Schedules) with the Pasadena Area Community College District.  The Article 12 reopener impacts ALL FACULTY – full-time and part-time faculty, instructional and non-instructional faculty, and faculty in both the credit and non-credit disciplines.

The FA Negotiations Team met with District representatives yesterday, Wednesday, May 15, 2024, to hear the District’s response to the FA’s original Article 12 Reopener proposal.  In our original proposal, the FA had asked for a 5% pay increase plus COLA for full-time faculty necessary to combat the ongoing cost of living increases in Pasadena and the greater Los Angeles area.  Additionally, our team had proposed a pay increase of 15% plus COLA for part-time faculty as a step towards true pay parity. 

The District countered the FA proposal with a pay increase of just one-half of COLA for all faculty.  One-half of COLA for all faculty.  

This counter-proposal is not only insulting, it is unacceptable.

To support our original proposal, the FA Negotiations Team conducted extensive research. We prepared a comprehensive, data-based presentation for District representatives and laid out the rationale for our proposed pay increases.  Our proposal was based on facts – concrete numbers related to the cost of living for PCC faculty as well as numbers that supported our aggressive, but necessary, push towards pay parity for part-time faculty.

While other terms in the District’s proposal were promising, these positive aspects were only undermined by the District’s proposed pay increase of one-half of COLA.  In his recent May Revise speech, Governor Newsom stated that COLA (Cost of Living Adjustment) is currently estimated to be 1.07%; however, we need to remember that the final COLA figure, which will not be finalized until July 2024, may change and may even go down. The District’s abysmal counter-proposal fails to even begin to take into account the cost of living increases we faculty have experienced in recent years.

The FA Negotiations Team is outraged with the direction of the District.  You should be, too.  As the FA Negotiations Team prepares a response to their proposal, we urge you to be vocal about the pay increase that all faculty deserve. Please contact the PCC Board of Trustees.  Please contact Dr. José A. Gómez, our Superintendent-President.  Please let them know why this pay increase is based on faculty needs, not merely our wants.

You can read the FA’s original proposal and the District’s counter-proposal on the PCCFA website.  Please contact us at facultyassociation@gmail.com with any questions or concerns.

Sincerely,

The PCCFA Negotiations Team