ACE Members,

We are happy to confirm the terms of our Joint Labor Management Bargaining Agreement regarding cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) for 2021-22 and 2022-23.  As a rule, we do not share the terms of the agreement until we have a signed tentative agreement (TA).  We have done this long enough to know language used in TAs can alter what we all thought an agreement meant and until we see it and sign it, it’s not confirmed.  

Effective July 1, 2021, each ACE, CSEA, FA, POA, and Teamsters salary schedule shall include: 

  • The 2.5 percent currently set to expire June 30, 2022, is now permanent and ongoing.  
  • Reminder:  this portion has been included in your pay since July 1, 2021. 
  • Since it is now permanent, employees and employer will need to pay for their portion of CalPERS contributions not collected on the 2.5 percent effective July 1, 2021.
    By law, the District cannot pay the employees portion unless there was an error in reporting. 
  • Plus, an additional 5.07 percent ongoing (the full 21-22 State COLA).
  • For simplicity – this is the amount your salary will increase.
  • In terms of retroactive pay, it will cover the 5.07 percent, with normal deductions for CalPERS, minus the employee portion for CalPERS deduction on the 2.5 percent effective July 1, 2021.

Effective July 1, 2022, each ACE, CSEA. FA, POA and Teamsters salary schedule shall increase by: 

  • 22-23 State COLA less 1%.
    • For example, if the state COLA is 5.75%, the additional increase will be 4.75%; if the state COLA is 6.2%, the additional increase will be 5.2%. 
    • The Governor’s 2022-23 January budget proposal had a 5.33 percent COLA included. Since then, there has been discussion it could be even higher. The Governor’s budget May revise (mid-May) should tell us what the COLA is set to be for 2022-23.

Why did we give up one percent of the COLA for 2022-23?
As mentioned in previous emails, the District does have some rising costs that needs to be addressed. Namely, pension liability. The COLA is one of very few revenues stream the District can use to cover increasing operational costs.  The one percent we gave up as a part of negotiations was to make sure the District had additional funds to cover rising costs. 

When do we get the money?
This is unknown. “Implementation shall commence as soon as possible following Union ratification, where required, and approval by the Board of Trustees. Given the short timeline, and as this requires additional programming and system modification, the parties agree to not commit to a specific deadline for implementation. The District will make a good faith effort to implement as quickly as possible”.

Reminder:  Every department in this district is understaffed and payroll and human resources are no different.   It is a workload issue with not enough people who are familiar with our process to do the work.  ACE has been telling the board of trustees since we incorporated in 2009 that cuts to staffing have a critical impact on how the work gets done.  Single points of failure in a system which then affect all employees.  We need to keep hammering home this issue so adequate staffing levels are addressed.

What if I retire or quit before the COLA is paid out?  
You will still receive the back pay up to your final date of employment.  The implementation date is July 1, 2021, meaning it is as if they were paying you at that salary level from July 2, 2021.

Next steps:

  1. Get a signed TA on this agreement. (In process.) 
  2. Inform the membership, in writing, the terms of the TA. ✅
  3. General Membership Meeting: May 10th @ Noon.
  4. Membership votes on approving TA: May 10th @ 1pm thru May 13th @ 2pm.
  5. Goes to the June FHDA board of trustees meeting for approval.

On behalf of the ACE Negotiations Team, 

Chris White, chair of negotiations

Negotiators
Sushini Chand
Chris Chavez
Joseph Gilmore
Keri Kirkpatrick
Andrea Santa Cruz
Scott Olsen
Bradley Booth, chief negotiator