Category: Negotiations

ACE Members,

Tentative Agreements Ratified – What’s Next?
Members approved our negotiated TAs by a vote of 149 to 1. The next step in approval happens during Monday night’s Board of Trustees meeting. Following the final step all items become a part of our Agreement. The two items I’ve received the most questions about are:

8.11 Language Proficiency Pay
a. Workers required by their manager to use their additional language skills in the regular course of business shall receive $ 100 per month.
b. Employees will only receive $ 100regardless of how many languages they are certified to interpret and/or translate.
c. The pay will be for languages deemed appropriate by the District and may change as the needs of the District change.
d. To be eligible for the pay the employee must pass a Language Proficiency exam.
e. When an employee moves to a different position, the continuation of the pay will be at the discretion of the new manager.

Email your manager and ask, “am I required to use an additional language as a part of my regular work?”
If they respond with yes, we can begin to pursue the additional pay through District HR by arranging for an language exam.

If they respond with no, it is your choice whether or not to volunteer to provide additional language skills in the workplace.

Effective July 1, 2025, the salary schedule will be increased by 3%.

The cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) is currently planned to be implemented in December paychecks pending testing by Payroll. Typically, two months of testing are set aside, so an update will be sent if any of this is delayed until January. This increases each step on the salary schedule by 3% or 1.03 and is retroactive to July 1^st for earnings, which necessitates calculation by Central Services employees for those previous five months. Current salary schedules are available on the HR website (LINK). Thank you to those who are working to get this accomplished by the end of the tax year.

Special Note: October Paystub PDFs are known to be inaccurate, but MyPortal (Banner) is still considered the source truth four our leave balance, leave usage, and deductions. Nancy Chao sent out an announcement earlier today with instructions on how to verify data. Contact me if you need an updated paystub.

ACE Elections – Reminder to Vote
Elections for ACE Executive Board positions conclude tomorrow – there’s still time to vote if you haven’t done so already. Contact @Sharon Garcia-Vega if you did not receive a link from ElectionRunner.com or have any issues with the site. Thank you to those who stepped up to serve in union positions. Everything that ACE does day-to-day is accomplished by members coming forward.

Human Resources – Karenless

Karen White and Karen Hunter are currently out of the office. If you have a pending issue that has not been resolved, contact @Kit Ocanada and cc me on the message. She is working through a list of pending issues I’ve been made aware of by members.

Thank you to @Karen Hunter for her years of service at the District and we’re all wishing her a wonderful retirement.

Which ACE Member is Señor Scary?
The final two nights of their annual Halloween Haunt, Los Muertos Cemetery is on display in Santa Clara. Visit this (LINK) for more information. Expect to be startled by fellow District employees who may make cameo appearances. (I’ll likely be there on Friday night.)

In Service,

Scott Olsen (he/him) | ACE President
https://acefhda.org | scott.olsen@acefhda.org  
650-949-7789 | M-F 8:30am-5:00pm

ACE Members,

President’s Message – Negotiations, Elections, Collective Power
This is trick-or-treating season and our inboxes are getting full of sweet union messages which demonstrate what we accomplish as an employee group. For full 2025-26 tentative agreement details scroll back to Friday for the summary message from @Chris Chavez, chair of negotiations. Here are highlights:

• 3.0% salary schedule increase to each step.
• $20 increase to each Longevity Award ($80 @ 4 awards).
• Language Proficiency Stipend (Bilingual Pay) made permanent.
• Increased initial Vacation Accrual from 6.66 to 7.0 hours per month.
  • 10 hours per month at the beginning of year 3.
  • 13.33 hour per month at the beginning of year 7.
  • 16 hours per month at the beginning of year 13.
• Working Out of Class permanency option after 2 years.
• Increased annual Travel & Conference and Educational Assistance individual limits.
• Work After Clocking Out changed from 11pm to 8pm (see 13.2.6.2).

An Outlook invitation was sent to members to join a general membership meeting at Foothill this Thursday at Noon in the Toyon room (and virtually via Zoom) to discuss the tentative agreements. Online voting on the negotiated items will begin following the meeting. Reminder: It’s an all or nothing, yes or no, membership vote. Upon approval, we move forward with implementing the changes. Upon disapproval, we go back to the table to negotiate with the district.

These contract changes don’t happen without a union and member support. Our negotiations team did a tremendous job at the bargaining table. Figuratively (using Halloween frame of reference) we saw the Faculty Association knock on the District’s door and leave with a bag of candy, then we knocked and wouldn’t leave until our bag was equally as filled. Results are a great recruiting tool, so if you are having a conversation with a non-member who didn’t receive the details from ACE, encourage them to join as a member. None of the highlighted items were passively obtained handouts – we challenge the District to respond to employee needs. Instructions on how to join our union are on our website (LINK). Feel free to send non-members with questions to any ACE representative.

Elections for union representatives are also taking place for the following positions: President, Central Services Vice President, De Anza Vice President, Foothill Chief Steward, De Anza Board Member (Seat 1), and Foothill Board Member. Emails from ElectionRunner were sent this morning. Contact @Sharon Garcia-Vega if you didn’t receive information on voting. Thank you to members who serve in these leadership roles. We achieve more when more of us participate. The work is easier  on us when more of us contribute.

Dues Forgiveness – October
The Executive Board approved dues forgiveness for upcoming member paychecks. Dues will not be deducted at the end of the month and for those who are paid mid-month. Thank you to @Jesse Perez for confirming our financial ability to allow for this and to @Lisa Kirk for raising the topic at a site meeting – come to a site meeting, members can do a lot.

• ACE has forgiven dues at least twice a year since 2009.
• We have forgave dues during the entire 2020 year.
• Dues are only collected from base (reg) pay.
  • Dues are not taken other compensation (Overtime, PGA, Longevity, etc.)
• The current dues rate is less than 1% (.87%)

We do not charge dues when we have sufficient funds to cover monthly expenses, pending litigation, and an adequate amount in our strike fund. As an independent labor association, we control our money and what the ways it goes toward representation.

231 Grant – Employee Housing
If you missed the open house event last Saturday, events are planned for every 3^rd Saturday of each month per Virginia Allen, Marketing Manager for Mercy Housing. Questions? Contact 231grant@mercyhousing.org

Search your inbox for previous messages on the topic.

Staff Development Leave Training
Join the next two upcoming site meetings for trainings and Q&A about Staff Development Leave. In the meantime check out 10.13 (LINK) if you’re nearing the end of your 7^th year with the district:

10.13 Staff Development Leave
To encourage and enable classified workers to enhance their value to the District through further job-related education, the upgrading of their skills, or retraining for a different career path, a Staff Development Leave has been established. A worker may apply for Staff Development Leave to begin upon completing seven (7) years of service in the District. The leave may be from one to ten months at 85% of full pay. Such leaves may be taken in one-quarter increments to a maximum of ten months. A worker becomes eligible for additional leaves after completing increments of seven (7) years of service to the District.

It’s been a busy season – more updates to come. Chris and I are busy responding to your questions about the tentative agreements.

In Service,

Scott Olsen (he/him) | ACE President
https://acefhda.org | scott.olsen@acefhda.org  
650-949-7789 | M-F 8:30am-5:00pm

Benefits Negotiations Update from Chris Chavez, Chair of Negotiations:

Hello Everyone,

The Joint Labor Management Benefits Committee (JLMBC) comprised of all the bargaining units the Association of Classified Employees (ACE), the California School Employees Association (CSEA), the Faculty Association (FA), the Police Officers Association (POA), and the Teamsters, entered into a MOU with the district on the employee contribution for health benefits for the 2026 calendar year.  

As negotiated last year, our employee contribution stands at 15% of the total cost of the chosen benefit plan, where the district contributes the other 85%.  Our interest this year was to maintain the 15% contribution level at a minimum, while attempting to ensure any rate increases would not impact our membership.  In the past, we have traditionally negotiated an across-the-board contribution rate. However, due to significant rate increases to certain plans, this was not feasible from a fiscal standpoint.

To mitigate the rise in cost, particularly for members with dependents, the bargaining units and the district had the mutual interest of categorizing our benefits options into low-cost, medium-cost, and high-cost tiers based on premium levels to spread out this cost as equitably as possible. Below are the breakdown of each plan tier and the employee contribution for each tier:

The low-cost plans include: 

• Kaiser HMO 
• PERS Gold PPO 
• Blue Shield Trio HMO 
• UnitedHealthcare Signature Value Harmony HMO 
• Western Health Advantage HMO 
• PORAC PPO 

For low-cost plans: employees will contribute 10.5% of the premium for employee-only coverage, and 13.5% of the premium for employee plus one dependent and family coverage. 

The medium-cost plans include: 

• Blue Shield Access+ HMO 
• UnitedHealthcare Signature Value Alliance HMO 
• Anthem HMO Select 

For medium-cost plans: employees will contribute 14% of the premium for all coverage levels. 

The high-cost plans include: 

• PERS Platinum 
• Anthem Traditional HMO 

For high-cost plans: employees will contribute 15% of the premium for all coverage levels. 

PERS Gold PPO: employees will contribute 11.2% of the premium for all coverage levels. 

Employee contributions for Vision and Dental stay at their current rates.

One quick note you may have noticed is that all singles with no dependents enrolled in a low-cost plan will see their contribution decrease slightly for almost all plans (e.g. singles on the Kaiser HMO plan will see a modest decrease of $23 per month).

In years past, the district was able to use the Rate Stabilization Fund (RSF), which was a separate pot of money the district would use for one-time funds to mitigate such a rise in cost to employees.  However, the district chose to eliminate that pot of money, as is their fiscal right to do so, but the bargaining units reminded the district this was their decision and that it did not give them the right to pass the financial burden onto employees due to the lack of the RSF. To which the district accepted.  This is another example of the power of solidarity and collective bargaining and how ACE serves you, the membership.

A reminder that open enrollment begins in October. HR will provide a number of tools to help employees compare plans so they may make the best decision for themselves and their dependents.

Chris Chavez

Chair of Negotiations

—

Message from Scott Olsen, President:

ACE Members,

Attached is the JLMBC Plan Year 2026 Detail spreadsheet which shows the background information on plan increases. This is a snippet of what union negotiators are presented with in the Joint Labor Management Benefits Committee. The rising cost of healthcare is a real issue for employers and employees. Collectively we did our best to create a proposal that was reasonable despite premium rate increases of 5% to 13% to our plans with the most enrollment. Initially there was a desire from the district to set an 85/15 (Employer/Employee) cost split and a ceiling at 1.7$mil in additional costs paid by the district. By the end of negotiations we created a different model with a district contribution of 2.2$mil.

As a reminder, we negotiate the premium contributions for the menu of CalPERS plans – we do not negotiate the details of the plans themselves.

Our next task is seeking a salary increase and improving the collective bargaining agreement. Stay tuned for more updates and look out for announcements about voting on tentative agreements made by the ACE negotiations team. If a colleague did not receive this message, they may not be a member. Please communicate the value our union brings to this workplace. Without representation our employer would have free reign to impose unilateral decisions.

Note: I’ll manually forward this message to employees who’ve recently submitted membership application forms (LINK).

In Service,

Scott Olsen (he/him) | ACE President
https://acefhda.org | scott.olsen@acefhda.org  
650-949-7789 | M-F 8:30am-5:00pm

JLMBC-MOU-Benefits-Plan-Year-2025-FINAL-Signed.pdf
JLMBC-PY2026-Rate-Detail.xlsx