I have resigned my position on the negotiations team due to my acceptance of a position as a faculty Librarian at De Anza.
This is a bittersweet message for me to write. As I work on wrapping my brain around this transition, I’ve been reflecting on my time as a Classified Professional here. And when I think about what I’ll miss most about it, I keep coming back over and over again to ACE. My Classified position is the first union job I’ve ever had. When we voted to decertify from SEIU and form our own independent union in 2009, I was so excited to get involved. Serving on our Union’s board and negotiations team has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my professional life. I learned so much about the decision-making processes of De Anza and the District, met and collaborated with many wonderful colleagues, and gained a new perspective on collective bargaining and the labor movement. Most importantly, I had the opportunity to participate in the management and direction of the Union and our contract, always with the maximum benefit to our members at the heart of every decision.
I think that sometimes there’s a perception that unions are all about contention and conflict, but that hasn’t been true in my experience. I prefer to frame it as protection instead. ACE protects the rights and interests of our members. Sometimes that requires conflict, but more often it requires collaboration, compromise, and consensus. I’m more patient and a better problem solver now because of my time with ACE.
We are so fortunate to have a strong, independent union. Without it, we wouldn’t have the solid contract that we do, or the leverage to keep improving on it. So much in there is above and beyond what the law requires. But ACE only works because we make it work.
If you have an interest in union work, or are curious about the inner processes of the District and college, or want to do something to support your Classified colleagues, please consider getting involved. Take advantage of that release time! Share your expertise and ideas! Get stoked on the camaraderie! Nurture that spark of enthusiasm, and keep the fires burning.
In solidarity,
Keri
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Many thanks to Keri for being an active member and representative. Our Contract is better off due to contributions from many members like her.
See update message below from the ACE Negotiations Team:
Hello ACE Members,
On Friday, April 11th, ACE sent our “sunshine” letter to the district to notify them of our intent to open Articles 9 – Holidays and Vacations, and Article 14 – Worker Expenses and Materials, for the 2025-26 bargaining cycle. As a reminder, Article 8 – Pay and Allowances, and Article 18 – Benefits, are automatically opened and are collectively bargained in joint sessions with the other FHDA bargaining units. Our focus in opening articles 9 and 14 along with 8 and 18, include but are not limited to:
1. Gaining parity with other bargaining units and districts in terms of vacation accrual. 2. Increasing or eliminating altogether the $1,600 cap on travel and conference funds 3. Keeping our employee contribution for benefits as low as possible.
We decided to open these articles based on the results of our negotiations survey as 64% of respondents expressed interest in opening Article 9 – Holidays and Vacation along with the knowledge that our district will soon hit the “revenue plateau” in the next fiscal year, meaning that our revenue from the state will not increase until our enrollments increases by a significant margin.
This is not news to us as the district has been very transparent about this fact and has expressed concerns about what this means for the long-term financial health of the district as costs will continue to go up while our revenue will remain flat for the foreseeable future. Another consequence is that our district will not be eligible for any Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA), even if it is included in the approved state budget. As such, we must look to maximize the available means of compensation outside of COLA that is already included in our contract. It is clear you, our membership, knows this as well as we received many comments throughout each section of the survey expressing this same concern.
Last week, the district informed us that along with Articles 8 and 18, they intend to open Article 13: Hours and Overtime – as they stated: “District’s interest is to meet student demand for services and classes in a manner consistent with the law and the Faculty Association agreement.” I expect the district’s interest in this area is to have each campus and their services available during nights and weekends. Both Sunshine letters are attached and were included in the Board of Trustees meeting agenda last night.
We will begin the bargaining process with the district soon, and will keep you updated on any developments. I am hopeful that with an almost entirely new leadership team in our district, our bargaining process will proceed in a timely and efficient manner founded in transparency and mutual respect.
On behalf of the Negotiations Team, thank you to those who took the time to complete our survey and we look forward to advocating for all ACE members at the bargaining table.
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.
