President’s Message The number of proposals, pending policy changes, and action items coming out of the federal government which affect our campus community can be overwhelming. Many changes are being challenged in the courts, but we can also participate in challenging them by contacting our elected representatives.
Emails have to be manually read and sorted.
Letters and postcards take time to arrive and get processed.
Faxes have to be digitized and emailed.
By contrast, congressional staffers tally phone calls right away.
5calls.org is a great site to get started and provides guidance for leaving a voicemail on urgent worker issues:
Protect Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Initiatives (LINK)
Save Federal Student Loan Programs from Cuts and Chaos (LINK)
Protect Free Speech: Stop Unlawful ICE Detainment of Immigrants (LINK)
Oppose Efforts to Dehumanize Transgender and LGBTQ+ People (LINK)
I have yet to see any executive order that seeks to improve public higher education, worker’s rights, or improve our day-to-day lives. We should change that by speaking up about the issues that matter most to us. Please consider using your free time to make a few calls to promote our interests and support for the community college system.
ACE does not use member dues for political purposes per our policy (LINK) – fortunately phone calls are free.
Weingarten Rights An outbreak of disciplinary meetings has occurred lately, so it’s important we all know our rights in this situation and understand when to bring in a steward. Union members have the right to union representation in a meeting where there is a reasonable expectation that discipline may result. Ask your manager/supervisor, “is this meeting investigatory or will it lead to discipline?”
What may a union representative do during an employee interview?
Union representatives serve as advisors and witnesses during employee interviews. Employers are required to inform union representatives as to the subject matter of the interview and allow time for that representative to meet with the employee prior to questioning.
During the interview, a union representative may ask the employer to clarify questions, give the employee advice on how to answer questions (within limits), and provide additional information to the employer after the questioning. A union representative may also object to questions if they are badgering, intimidating, or offensive.
Contacting a steward or asking questions at a member site meeting can get ahead of the disciplinary process… Is it appropriate for my manager to ask me to do this? Should this be expected of me? Is this allowed under the Agreement? My manager is accusing me of X, what are the potential consequences? How do I document against being disciplined?
Bilingual Pay Pilot MOU Between Fall 2024 and Spring 2025…
How many students did you serve?
How much time did you spend using your bilingual skills?
How would you summarize what the district received in exchange for bilingual pay?
Please email the answers to hr@fhda.edu with the subject: “ACE Bilingual Pay” and cc your manager/supervisor + @Scott Olsen
Unfortunately our MOU with the district (LINK) was developed and implemented during a transition period for human resources management. The answers to the questions above will help inform a future (improved) pilot and/or contribute to making bilingual pay a permanent part of our collective bargaining agreement.
April Dues Forgiveness The ACE Executive board approved that member dues will not be collected at the end of the month and for those paid mid-month in May. We can do this because we have an excellent treasurer and we are an independently member-operated organization in control of our own money. Currently we have a sufficient amount set aside for regular operations, pending litigation, and a strike fund.
Floating Leave Review After talking with members, here is a complied deep dive review:
9.3 Floating Leave Each full-time permanent worker shall be granted up to a maximum of 40 hours of paid leave per year as a floating leave. Permanent part-time workers who work fewer than 40 hours per week are entitled to that proportion of floating leave hours granted full-time workers that is equal to the percent of a full-time contract. Eligibility for floating leave begins on the first of the calendar month following six complete months of employment.
Floating leave may be used for planned absences for which other leaves (sick leave, personal necessity leave) are inappropriate, such as special family obligation (attending a family member’s graduation or marriage ceremony) or celebrating a birthday or special occasion. The worker may, but is not required to, inform the supervisor of the purpose or nature of the request.
Floating leave is not cumulative, will not accrue from year to year, and must be utilized during the college year (July 1 – June 30) or will be lost. Floating leave has no cash-value, and any unused floating leave hours shall not be converted to other leave credits upon separation from service. Floating leave must be scheduled in advance with the supervisor, and must have the approval of the supervisor as evidenced by the supervisor’s signature on the time sheet.
Why was this change made? Our Agreement has always included Personal Necessity Leave (defined by Ed Code) as a subset of Sick Leave, but our separate Personal Leave led to confusion for Human Resources new hires (pre-2024).
What changed? Here’s a table and explanation:
Pre-2024
Post-2024
10.1 Sick Leave (10.1 Personal Necessity Leave)
10.1 Sick Leave (10.10 Personal Necessity Leave)
10.10 Personal Leave
9.3 Floating Leave
Per our Agreement there are two key things to understand about Floating Leave:
It is a catch-all for anything which other leaves may not be appropriate for, and;
You are not required to disclose what you are using it for.
How do I request Floating Leave? The District is working on updating Banner and LiquidOffice, but the expectation is that our existing pool Personal Leave will be renamed to Floating Leave. Until then you can request to use Floating Leave by emailing your manager/supervisor/administrator a message saying, “I would like to use floating leave on [planned day]. Please respond if you approve my request.”
What if they ask what I’m using Floating Leave for? The suggested response would be, “I am not required to provide information regarding the purpose or nature of the request.”
Until Banner and LiquidOffice are updated, how do I show that I used Floating Leave? For now, use the Personal Leave drop down category in LiquidOffice. Add a note where LiquidOffice allows stating that Floating Leave was approved on the days you chose Personal Leave. (Yes, it’s admittedly confusing right now but it will be corrected.)
What if I need to take Personal Necessity Leave? Personal Necessity Leave is available to permanent and probationary workers, and it is drawn from Sick Leave, so you would use the Sick Leave drop down category in LiquidOffice and add a note stating that the Sick Leave was used for circumstances (but not limited to) of personal necessity under 10.10:
10.10.1 Emergencies or obligations related to the worker’s home or family members, including medical or dental appointments for the worker’s family members when the nature of the appointment requires the worker’s presence,
10.10.2 Emergencies or obligations related to the worker, including appointments for the purpose of conducting personal legal affairs or financial transactions, receipt of a court order requiring absence from work, or observation of a major religious holiday of the worker’s faith.
10.10.3 Extending bereavement leave for the employee’s immediate family; or
10.10.4 Appearance in any court or before any administrative tribunal as a litigant, party, or witness under subpoena or any order made with jurisdiction.
What if I have more questions or getting leaves approved? Reach out to a Steward.
Below is a sample image of my LiquidOffice Time Card (LOTR) from October which includes the dropdown of available codes. I’d like to focus on 3 of them:
180 Sick Leave – This is most commonly used for when you are sick and does not require pre-approval.
How to use it: “I’m staying home today, I’m sick” or “I have a medical appointment for preventative treatment or diagnosis”
185 Personal Necessity Leave – This covers unavoidable emergencies and obligations related to your household (does not require pre-approval [unless it can be anticipated/scheduled]).
How to use it: “I have an unavoidable obligation that takes place during work hours. If you have questions, let schedule a conversation.”
On the same page you can sign up for email alerts that will ping you monthly, which is also a good reminder to attend an event or check out a video on your topic of interest:
CalPERS may not be the largest social media influencer, but they are on YouTube if you’d like to subscribe to their channel – https://www.youtube.com/CalPERS
We may be able to answer some questions at upcoming site meetings, but CalPERS is the ultimate source for details about his benefit.
ACE Website WordPress Woes Our website is a valuable resource for union updates, contract information, forms, and information about our organization. Unfortunately, some components are not aging gracefully. This week a plug-in broke access to pages and had to be disabled. This is occurring more frequently, so it’s probably beyond time to redesign the site and remove those old plugins which cause compatibility issues. Despite my technical background and personal Geocities experience, it does become a bit of a challenge and there’s an awareness that it may be unmanageable for others to support in the future.
Want to get involved in the fix? Do you have a WordPress background and desire to provide additional guidance? Contact @Scott Olsen
AB 65 Pregnancy Leave Bill Attached is the CalSTRS analysis for a state bill up for discussion. I’ll highlight the important pieces which would affect us at the district:
Specifically, this bill:
• Requires public school employers and community college districts to provide up to 14 weeks of leave with full pay to certificated and classified employees who experience pregnancy, miscarriage, childbirth, termination of pregnancy or recovery from those conditions as determined by the employee and employee’s physician.
• Provides a formula for calculating the amount of leave for part-time employees.
• Permits the paid leave to begin before or continue after childbirth.
• Prohibits a paid leave of absence for any of these reasons from being deducted from other leaves of absence available to the employee.
• Requires employers to maintain group health coverage for an employee who takes this leave for the duration of the leave and at the same level and under the same conditions of coverage they would have been provided had they not taken the leave.
• States that employers have an obligation to continue complying with bargaining agreements that provide greater disability or parental leave rights to employees than those provided by this bill.
• Extends provisions that require, except as provided by the bill, employers to apply policies and practices for disability due to pregnancy or childbirth in the same manner as other temporary disabilities to classified employees.
• Provides that there are no eligibility requirements for this leave, including, but not limited to, minimum hours worked or length of service, except for those laid out in the bill.
This would be a substantial benefit beyond our current collective bargaining agreement to address inequity in the workplace. Sometimes we’re able to negotiate for added contract benefits and sometimes the law can provide those added benefits. Please contact your state representatives to provide your feedback on this proposed bill – https://www.usa.gov/elected-officials/
Do you have a topic to contribute to these member email updates? Send them my way! I can credit you or you could be anonymous. Anything that directly affects our work environment is a great subject to raise.
From yesterday’s message, we have a copy of “Secrets of a Successful Organizer” to provide to members who are visually impaired or would like an accessible version.
President’s Message We’re constantly paying attention to the volume of executive orders, actions, and legal counters, rapidly coming out of the federal government. We’re in an evolving landscape (to put it very mildly) which is making understanding how we’ll be affected difficult. Again, nothing is changing at the district right now – we have no budget shortfall, no change in our services, and no positions are changing.
The chart (LINK) below from Labor Notes’s “Secret of a Successful Organizer” is something I often recall. We are holding the “interpretation box” to understand what’s going to happen when the dust settles. Threats to funding also put us in the “righteous anger box”, but what’s important as a plan to win is to channel that message toward decision makers who have leverage over the funds which are at risk or stress that creating alternative funding sources may be necessary. We can all agree (common ground) that losing federal funding for any reason is not going to help us serve our community while we are already under the student centered formula funding (SCFF) floor(F). Clearly communicating that message to state and federal representatives is important, so I hope you are taking the time to send a message to your representatives – https://www.usa.gov/elected-officials/ .
(Reach out if you’d like a copy of the book – I have 10 copies remaining and we have the budget to purchase more.)
ACE Vice President for De Anza Appointed Welcome @Marybell Arebalo to the ACE Executive Board! Marybell was appointed unanimously. On behalf of all members, thank you for serving in this important position for the remainder of the term Vins Chacko was originally elected for ending Dec 31st, 2025. Everyone has the right to participate and serve in the union and we’re grateful to those who step forward into these leadership roles.
We’re working on granting access to the ace_da email list, so look forward to receiving about union hiring committee appointments from Marybell. Special Note; ACE reps play an important role in advocating for internal applicants to determine equivalency for meeting minimum qualifications for an interview. If you are on a committee and feel as though a member is improperly denied an interview, contact @Scott Olsen immediately.
Staff Development Leave (SDL) Update The committee is going to meet on Monday to review applications. If you’ve submitted yours, you may want to “bump” it to the top of the human resources inbox. I’ll email the applicants who cc’d me on their submissions. Expect to see approvals on the April Board of Trustees agenda in the HR Report. This is normally on their March agenda, but this is the first time for our current (new) HR Vice Chancellor and (new) HR Associate Vice Chancellor are working through this contract section. Welcome Karen White to a permanent role in HR as AVC.
Dues Forgiveness April & May The ACE line item for union dues will not appear on member paystubs for April and May per the approved ACE budget. It does not affect your membership, so always contact a steward or our attorney directly if you have a question about conditions of employment. As always, we can do this because we control our own money as an independent labor organization, Treasurer @Kathy Nguyen provides excellent financial management, and we’ve earned interest upon our strike fund + money set aside for potential legal/operational expenses.
Whenever ACE does not need to charge for services, we don’t.
Overtime – Call Back Time, Stand-By, and post-Clocked Out Compensation Have you worked overtime but had a gap between your regular schedule and that overtime? You may be due a minimum of 4 hours of overtime per the Agreement (LINK):
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. (13.2.4)
Article 13 goes on to state:
Carrying a district-provided cell phone after normal working hours shall be entirely voluntary. Workers will not be disciplined for failure to respond to a call, email, or text message after they have clocked out for the day. (13.2.6)
No worker shall be required or requested to be available for handling potential emergency situations or available to answer questions by phone, text, or email after they have clocked out for the day, unless the supervisor has contacted the worker to authorize call-back time to accommodate a special need. (13.2.6.1)
Workers who are contacted by phone, 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. (13.2.6.2)
Workers who are contacted by phone 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 phone 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.
You should not feel stress to respond to district business after hours and you cannot be disciplined for not responding. It is understood that we have regular work schedules and overtime should not become a burden:
Overtime shall be distributed among qualified workers in order that opportunities to earn extra pay will be equitably shared and in order that overtime work will not become the burden of a small percentage of qualified workers. Consideration when possible will be given to the personal obligations of workers which may conflict with overtime hours. (13.2.5)
If you are regularly being assigned more work than is possible to complete during your regular work schedule, we can meet with your supervisor/manager to prioritize tasks. Short staffing is a college/district choice – we can work with you to document that there is too much work and not enough people to do it. Creating an agreement surrounding duty/task priorities also shields you from discipline from work that is determined to be low priority. Reach out to any steward to start this conversation. Problems rarely if ever resolve themselves without a member coming forward.
This is also a common occurrence while working out of class. If you’re assuming the duties of another full-time position, you should not be expected to complete the duties of the position you were originally hired for. Again, schedule a meeting with a steward for more information.
