A locally governed, independent association, incorporated in 2009 by classified professional staff in the Foothill-De Anza (FHDA) Community College District to represent themselves pursuant to the California Public Employees Relations Act of 1976. ACE and the District Board of Trustees collectively bargain decisions on salary, hours of work, hiring practices, classification, and other terms and conditions of employment at Foothill and De Anza colleges.
ACE Election Results Huge thank you to @Shawna Santiago for running the election so well 👏 We sincerely appreciate those who accepted their nomination for a position on the ACE executive board and those who participated by voting. In case you missed the results last Friday, the are on our website (LINK.) Newly elected board members will begin their two-year terms on January 1st, 2023 – Congratulations to Stacey Carrasco, Thomas Marks, Angelica Esquivel, Erika Flores, Phuong Tran, Shawna Santiago, and Kathy Nguyen.
Mask Policy Meet & Confer Results On Wednesday, November 9th, ACE and District Human Resources representatives met to bargain the impact of the Chancellor’s abrupt policy change. It was agreed that members can individually post signage or verbally request that masks be worn in their work areas. If you are met with resistance, notify your manager/supervisor/administrator. You do not need to disclose your personal need for a mask to be worn but know that you do have the support of Human Resources in cases such as where a person in you are in close contact with is in a high risk category when contracting covid (immunocompromised, too young to be vaccinated, etc..) If an employee has a medical condition accommodations can be made. Contact an ACE Steward if needed.
FHDA CCD’s current overall policy making masks optional aligns with guidance from Santa Clara County (LINK) and the Center for Disease Control (LINK).
We appreciate the Marietta Harris and Ray Quan working collaboratively with ACE to develop practices that create a safe working environment. This meeting fulfills the requirement by our contract agreement to meet with ACE. As such we will withdraw our unfair labor practice and grievance.
As a reminder, COVID-19 Supplemental Paid Sick Leave provides covered employees up to 80 hours of COVID-19 related paid leave, with up to 40 of those hours for isolation & quarantine, receiving vaccines, and caring for a child whose school or place of care is closed and up to an additional 40 of those hours available only when an employee, or family member for whom the employee provides care, tests positive for COVID-19. Review the department of industrial relations frequently asked questions for more information (LINK.)
The leave covers Jan 1, 2022 through Dec 31, 2022. COVID-19 Supplemental Paid Sick Leave is retroactive to January 1, 2022, which means that covered employees who took qualifying leave between January 1, 2022 and February 19, 2022, can request payment for that leave if it was not paid by the employer in the amount that is required under this law.
Free Flu Shots at De Anza Health Services Today at 10 am until Noon, ACE members Erika Martinez Meraz, Tara Chan, and Rosa-Ann Fragoza will be providing free flu vaccines to students and employees. If you can’t make it today, Wednesday, Dec 7th is the last drop in event. (LINK) to more details.
Future ACE updates should be much less cold and flu centric🤞
Veteran’s Day Holiday Contract information has been added to your calendars and time has been blocked off as a reminder of tomorrow’s holiday. What are your thoughts on this? Should we do the same for the rest of the district holiday schedule? Let us know at a site meeting or respond via email.
Thank you to those who’ve served in the military. I encourage members to participate in local events honoring veterans, visit your local veterans memorial, or volunteer your time to show support.
November paychecks will have our negotiated 5.56% salary schedule increase. In addition, the retroactive amount due for July through October (4 months) will be included.
Thank you again to our Negotiations Team 👏 As a reminder, the state approved cost of living adjustment is not a passthrough at this district. ACE actively negotiates with the district’s team each year to settle upon the final COLA.
November Dues Forgiveness
ACE has sent a message to Payroll to forgive member dues for the month of November. We can forgive dues because we are an independent association and manage our money responsibly. Our Executive Board approved three months of dues forgiveness during the 22-23 academic year as a part of our budget (LINK.) November will be the second approved month ACE has not charged dues. February 2023 will most likely be the third month we do not charge dues as a part of this budget.
Are we charging an appropriate amount to maintain our business today and for the future?
ACE is looking for representation from members at De Anza to serve on a committee to answer this question. Email olsenscott@fhda.edu or scott.olsen@acefhda.org if you would like to join.
2021-24 Agreement
ACE has been asking for our updated agreement to be made available since January of this year. Unfortunately administrators who are no longer with the district failed to bring it to the Board of Trustees for approval. All negotiated tentative agreements (TAs) have been ratified by past membership votes, but have not been consolidated into our contract. What has changed?
9.1 Holidays (2021) From 17 to 18 with the addition of Juneteenth, effective June 19, 2022 onward.
23.1 Length of Agreement (2021) This agreement will continue in effect through October 31, 2024…
14.7 Travel and Conference (2019) Fund increased from $40,000 to $60,000.
14.8 Educational Assistance (2019) Training/Retraining Funds increased from $1200 to $1500 per fiscal year.
8.4.5 Longevity (2019) Classified Hourly employees to receive longevity awards on the same timeline as regular classified employees at a prorated amount.
18.1 Benefits (2019) Classified Hourly benefits for those who can show they have no other access to medical insurance may enroll in an individual basic Kaiser plan.
The list above is not fully comprehensive, but it illustrates what we negotiate for. It is crucial that the outcomes above are documented in our agreement to create a common understanding of the rules of employment. You can review which contract articles have been opened for negotiations in the past on our website (LINK.)
Union Bug & Website Updates
Spooky season caught up with the ACE website. Links have turned orange for fall, ghosts a few things moved around, and changes were made to improve readability. Thanks to @Jerry Robredo we’ve also got a union bug which draws from elements of our classic logo, which goes along with Article 5.5 (LINK):
Article 5.5 Union “Bug”
Union members shall have the right to include the Union label on all books, reports, brochures, stationery or other documents produced by the District in accordance with customary printing trade’s practices unless the person ordering the printing marks an objection on the appropriate form.
If you use it on any of the items above, send Jerry and I a photo or screenshot.
Elections
All members should have received a message titled “Your Invitation to Vote in the Election: 2023-20234 ACE Elections” from electionrunner.com. Search your inboxes and junk mail for it. If you are a member and have not received this notification contact @Shawna Santiago.
Thank you to those who’ve participated in the process. We are an independent business that relies on active member participation and members taking leadership positions as a representatives to make decisions about the direction of our union.
Upcoming Professional Development Workshops
@Claudia Guzman from the Office of Professional Development at De Anza has provided a list of upcoming workshops (attachment in email.)
California Community Colleges: Vision Resource Center (Overview)
November 14th 12:00 – 1:00pm
December 8th 1:00 – 2:00pm
ACE Professional Growth Award / Educational Assistance Reimbursement (Overview)
November 3rd 1:00-2:00pm
December 1st 1:00-2:00pm
Staff Development Leave (Overview)
November 10th 12:00-1:00pm
November 29th 11:00am-12:00pm
Employees can register for all of the Fall 2022 workshops by visiting this google form (LINK.)
Mask Policy Change Demand to Bargain
To date the district has failed to meet with ACE. Three weeks have passed since we sent our last message and no attempt has been made on behalf of district administrators to meet an confer regarding the impact of the unilateral policy change. ACE is not challenging their ability to make these changes, but management is legally obligated to negotiate the impact with us. No response they have provided has included a legitimate reason not to come to the table.
All district employees received a message on October 18th from the Chancellor regarding a meeting with another bargaining unit (LINK) who had issued the same demand. ACE continues to press for an equal response. Inaction on behalf of management is insulting. A process which should have taken an hour has now consumed a month. It has generated two districtwide “apology” messages, exchanges between our attorneys and district lawyers, and been an unfortunate topic of these update messages. As president I don’t want to write nastygrams, but I will do so in an effort to obtain respect for us in the workplace.
“Scott, you need to be more positive,” sometimes gets said to me and my response has been, “I’m part of a union, we take garbage and process it into positivity all day.”
Personal Cell Phones Are you using your personal cell phone for college/district business? STOP! 🛑
First, there is a district smartphone allowance if calling or texting is asked of you:
If your manager or supervisor is requiring you to use a smartphone as a tool to do your job, the college/district should pay to provide it (and they do for many employees.) Again, STOP if you are doing this for free and ask about receiving the cell phone stipend. The Cisco Jabber desktop application is the method provided for maintaining contact with your supervisor/manager and authenticating using Duo. The onus is on the district to provide what is necessary to complete your work. If Jabber is not functional, let your supervisor/manager know.
Second, you are inviting a workplace related investigation into your personal life if you are using a personal device (phone, computer, tablet, etc.) to store work related text messages, emails, and documents. That device can be seized, and all its contents can be examined. Keep your work data completely separate from your personal data.
The following sections of the agreement in our contract are intended to maintain boundaries if work creeps into your unpaid personal time:
13.2.3 … For the purpose of determining the number of hours worked, time during which the worker is excused from work because of holidays, sick leave, vacation, compensatory time off, or other paid leave of absence shall be considered as time worked by the worker.
13.2.4 Call Back Time
Occasionally a worker may be called back for work in the evening or on a weekend to accommodate a special need. In such cases, travel time to and from home will be counted as time worked. In order to make the disturbance of normal time off worthwhile, the pay for combined work and travel time shall be for a minimum of four hours.
13.2.6.1 Stand-By
No worker shall be required or requested to be available for handling potential emergency situations or available to answer questions by telephone after he or she has clocked out for the day.
13.2.6.2 Compensation for Work Performed after Workers have Clocked Out for the Day
Workers who are contacted by telephone, beeper, or computer after they have clocked out for the day, but prior to 11:00 p.m., to answer questions or handle emergencies from home, shall be paid a minimum of fifteen (15) minutes overtime and shall be paid in quarter hour (15 minute) increments after the first fifteen (15) minutes.
Workers who are contacted by telephone, beeper or computer after 11:00 p.m. to answer questions or handle emergency situations from home shall be paid a minimum of two hours overtime.
Workers who are contacted by telephone, beeper, or computer for emergencies which begin prior to 11:00 p.m., but continue past 11:00 p.m., will be paid the two-hour minimum.
Your supervisor/manager contacting you while you are on leave is not ok.
Contact an ACE steward if you are continuously being asked to use your personal cell phone.
CalPERS Service Credit Purchase We’ve had a number of former temporary employees join us as full-time employees. You may be eligible to purchase service credit if you worked for a CalPERS-covered employer before you became a CalPERS member. CalPERS has a number of resources on the topic, but the process begins with them:
From “A Guide to Your CalPERS Service Credit Purchase Options” (LINK): To request your service credit electronically, log in to your myCalPERS account at https://my.calpers.ca.gov/ On the home page under Service Credit, select Make a Service Credit Purchase
Depending on the type of service credit you are requesting, certification may be required If certification is needed from an employer or reciprocal agency, you and the agency will be notified electronically The agency will have 30 days to provide the required certification to CalPERS
Per Payroll:
Once the request is received in CalPERS, HR validates the employment & position data in the request (if there are errors, it will be rejected) and Payroll completes the pay history by month and HR finishes off with certification within 30 days upon the member’s request.
More Information: CalPERS Quick Tip | Service Credit Purchase (YouTube LINK) CalPERS Service Credit (YouTube LINK) CalPERS Service Credit Cost Estimator (LINK)
For those that have taken a leave of absence, you may also be eligible to purchase service credit. Use cost estimator link above to see if the leave type (maternity/parental, education, service, sabbatical, serious illness.) you’ve taken qualifies.
Fall Mask Policy Survey results are available here (LINK.)
Quick takeaways:
136 of 337 members participated (40% response rate)
The majority of ACE members do not want covid-19 policy updates on Friday nights.
The majority of respondents were from public facing offices.
Why did ACE conduct a survey? To determine what we want as a membership and respond accordingly as representatives. ACE is committed to ensuring the health and safety of our members.
Why would ACE demand to bargain the latest policy? The district is compelled to negotiate the impact of unannounced unilateral changes when asked to do so by ACE. The survey results speak to our overall concern. We’ve never really known the impact of covid-19 on district employees due to lack of a “covid dashboard” displaying statistics. As such we have submitted an information request for case and exposure data throughout this year. Again, ACE is committed to ensuring the health and safety of our members.
To be honest, I expected this issue would have been resolved within an hour. ACE has a history of arriving at reasonable compromises. At this time district administration is refusing to sit down to have conversation to discuss this matter even after delivering our survey data. In the past we’ve submitted similar feedback to shape policy and been alerted prior to implementation:
Per Judy Aug 16 : “After a robust discussion at this afternoon’s Consultation Task Force meeting, we reached consensus to continue to require face coverings in all indoor classes and public-facing offices and to recommend masks in all other areas.”
Per Judy Sep 23: “As I stated in my original message, this change does not eliminate the ability of faculty and managers to require masking in their respective instructional and public-facing areas or the ability of individual employees to continue to wear masks as they choose.”
We attended a week’s worth of “opening day” events in person where this could have been announced, addressed, and discussed.
It’s been said, “if you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu.” Currently we’ve been reduced to the bare minimum entitled to us by virtue of our position. Our agreement has been violated, our demand to bargain remains unresolved, and to date our voice has been disregarded.
I am committed to keeping you informed. I do my best to keep these communications as factual as possible, but there are circumstances when it is challenging not to be agitated. ACE continues to fight for dignity and respect on the job for the members we represent.
