EDITOR’s NOTE: The Blue Mountain Community College Faculty Association released the following response Friday to the administration’s declaration of a contract impasse.

The Blue Mountain Faculty Association was disappointed and surprised to receive word that the college had declared an impasse in contract negotiations.

While bargaining had lasted more than 14 months, the Faculty Association was determined to continue meeting at the table to resolve issues. The news of the impasse was an about face from the reported optimism expressed by Mike Shea in the East Oregonian on Tuesday, the day after mediation.

“I was astonished by the fact that the college had violated their signed written agreement,” said Jan Acsai, the Association’s chief negotiator. “They had promised us 24 hours notice prior to releasing any statement to the press.”

Tina Martinez, president of the Faculty Association, said, “I found out that the president had called an impasse only after being contacted by a reporter from the East Oregonian. This lack of communication seems to be a pattern.”

“Of paramount concern to the full-time faculty is the equitable, fair and consistent treatment of our part-time faculty,” Martinez said. “The college is ignoring part-time issues and they are a significant part of this contract. This disregard only points to the fact that the college is not prepared to deal with the complexity of the part-time issues,” said Bob Hillenbrand, association negotiator. It appears as though they don’t want to do the work that would be required to come up with a reasonable salary schedule and fair and equitable treatment.”

The full-time faculty believe that part-time issues are of great importance.

“Part-time faculty are new to the bargaining unit and we are determined to fight for their needs,” Acsai said. “Our concern, first and foremost, is the issue of their salary. For far too long part-time faculty have been severely underpaid for their services. We are interested in obtaining consistent wages for all part-time individuals, a salary schedule that is on parity with full-time, an appropriate benefit package and wages that are not at or below poverty level as they are currently.”

It is noteworthy that the college failed to even mention the part-time issues in their statements regarding the impasse and would lead readers to believe that the issues are full-time salaries and benefits.

“The truth is we have hardly discussed economic issues,” Hillenbrand said. “In fact, the last mediation session was mostly taken up with the contract article that deals with recognition of part-time as part of the bargaining unit. The college was attempting to renege on the Employee Relations Board Agreement they signed with us two years ago.”

Martinez reported that “during the last academic year, the college was inconsistent in awarding raises to the part-time individuals which resulted in an unfair labor practice filing with the State Employee Relations Board.”

The outcome of that filing was a settlement in favor of the part-time faculty and exemplifies the inconsistent treatment that they have experienced to date causing them to vote for union representation. There are no other increases proposed by the college for part-timers to help them earn a living wage.

“We are adamant about procuring some kind of assurance that part-timers will have job security. As things currently stand, many of the part-time faculty don’t know if they will have a job from one quarter to the next, even though many of them have been employed by the college for over a decade,” Acsai said.

Another focus of the bargaining to date has been the effort to maintain the rights and protections of both part-time and full-time faculty. Of primary importance is freedom in the classroom. To be able to discuss relevant and controversial issues without fear of reprisal and to have the right to decide what is and is not relevant to the subject matter at hand is the heart and soul of higher education.

“We want to make sure that our professional training as teachers is not ignored,” Acsai said. “We believe that our expertise uniquely qualifies us to participate in the decision making on all instructional issues.”

The Faculty Association was not prepared to discuss economic issues as the college had not provided us with the necessary financial information.

“We requested the information weeks ago, but the college has been stalling on releasing it,” Acsai said. “Without it we are unable to make a fair and equitable proposal regarding salary and benefits.”

The disclosure of an additional $771,135 excess, stated in their press release, came as a shock to the Faculty Association.

“While closely guarding the secret that the college had these funds, the administration has drastically cut into the instructional side of the institution claiming dire financial difficulties,” Hillenbrand said. “They probably wouldn’t have revealed it at this time if we had not been pressing for the year-end financial statement.

This surplus clearly came from the loss of faculty positions last August after the President came on board.”

At that time, the college president reversed the prior administration’s decision to replace full-time instructors in Business, English, History, Math and Physics and the elimination of several programs.

“These decisions not only severely impacted the families of the individuals laid off, but also significantly reduced the course offerings for our students,” Acsai said.

“Sadly, I’m afraid it may be the students who ultimately suffer,” Martinez said. “I hope the negotiations are able to get back on track,” she said, “but that may require some significant changes in the administration’s attitude that have so far been lacking. A basic question that we may have to begin to ask ourselves is whether our college and our community are better off now than they were a year ago, before this president took office.”

She further commented that the Association’s sentiments were expressed eloquently by our departing student counselor, Mark Lazich, who resigned yesterday, with this departing thought: “Settle for nothing less than a professional, respectful, collaborative and nurturing work environment”