In This Issue:

• Joe Rizzo Honored
• Discrimination Arbitrable
• MCCC Annual Meeting

JOE RIZZO TO BE HONORED Joseph Rizzo

The Second Annual Jon G. Butler Memorial Award for outstanding chapter president will be awarded at the MCCC Delegate Assembly on May 3, 1986. This award was established in the Fall of 1984 in honor of Jon Butler, former chapter president at Northern Essex Community College, former MCCC Research Coordinator, and outspoken, active proponent of unit members' rights. This years recipient is Joseph Rizzo, Northern Essex Community College Chapter President. Joe is an Associate Professor of Behavorial Sciences and Sociology and has been teaching full time at the college since 1973. "I always wanted to teach at a community college. I was not the best student in high school and did not have a good attitude about education. I enrolled at Northern Essex as a student, and the school changed my attitude and outlook on education." "After a number of years at the school, however, I began to get irritated with management's attitude that the school and curricula were theirs, when it is really all of ours. I became actively involved in the Union in 1981 because I was so outraged and indignant that the promotional ranking process was rigged like a Kangaroo Court." That experience led Rizzo to become interested in the whole issue of labor relations at No. Essex and at the statewide level. He became a local Board of Director member and Vice President, and in May, 1984 he became chapter president. As a chapter president, he feels his job is to represent the interests of all faculty and professional staff. Participation in the local association is very important, and Rizzo says that attendance at local union meetings is excellent and the local Board of Directors is representative of many divisions throughout the College. "The most difficult aspect of chapter president", states Rizzo, "is seeing the worst side of management. When people feel injured and need justice, they are often disappointed with administration for their not addressing the problem or trying to remedy a situation." "The Union needs to continue what it is doing - trying to represent all members equally, locally and statewide. We are equal to one another, and the Association forces management to treat us equally. We are not a superior/ subordinate scale - everyone is equally valuable."

DISCRIMINATION IS ARBITRABLE

A grievence was filed by Professor A. Washington from Mt. Wachusett Community College for discrimination in hiring. At the arbitration hearing, the Board of Regents argued that Article 2.01, Fair Practices and discrimination were not arbitrable. The Board of Regents argued that the Arbitrator lacks authority to arbitrate affirmative action and that racial discrimination is contractually defined as affirmative action and, hence, inarbitrable under this Agreement. The Board also argued that there are a variety of other fora in which complaints of racial discrimination may be heard, and this is the reason that the parties agreed to remove affirmative action issues from the jurisdiction of the arbitrators. The Board further argued that the subject matter of the grievance is inarbitrable pursuant to the Management Rights Clause. The Union's position is that the grievance is arbitrable. The Union acknowledges that affirmative action is not arbitrable under this Agreement, but it argues that race discrimination ;s a concept which is distinguishable from affirmative action and that issues of race discrimination are not removed from the jurisdiction of the arbitrators. The arbitrator ruled that unlike affirmative action, race discrimination is not one of the eight subjects expressly removed from the jurisdiction of the arbitrators. There is no evidence of across-the-bargaining table discussion to substantiate the Board's argument. The arbitrator agrees with the Board that it has certain management rights under Article IV; however, Article IV sets forth a limitation on the non-arbitrability of the exercise of these rights, i.e., that the exercise of these rights may be challenged in arbitration "only as to the limitation specifically stated in this Agreement". That the Board may not act contrary to its commitment to the policy of non-discrimination with regard to race is such a limitation. The arbitrator disagrees with the Board and agrees with the Union. Race discrimination is arbitrable.

MCCC ANNUAL MEETING

The MCCC Delegate Assembly will be held on Saturday, May 3 at Mt. Wachusett Community College. Each college is allocated ten percent of its membership to be delegates. Some of the areas to be addressed are: Status and direction of negotiations Joint Study Committee Grievance, arbitration, and prohibited practices report Part time and DICE organizing status Budget recommendations This year, the budget, exclusive of local Chapter support of $7,000, is $8,000 or 4.2% greater than the Fiscal, 1986 budget of $177, 050. Because of the increase in unit membership, the Finance Committee has recommended that dues for Fiscal 1987 remain at $86, of which $13 is to be transmitted to the Chapters. It is estimated, based on paid membership as as on December 31, 1985, that the membership will total 1,750 in Fiscal, 1987.

RESOLVED GRIEVANCE

A chapter grievance filed on behalf of the Culinary Arts Department at Massasoit Community College was resolved at the local level. The faculty had excessive workloads plus other assigned duties. Management and the chapter agreed that the overloaded faculty will receive compensatory workload reductions in the 1986‚Äë1987 academic year, and it was also agreed that the curriculum will be revised by next year.

RESOLVED GRIEVANCES

A systemwide grievance emanating from Berkshire Community College concerning whether the pomulgation or existence of one or more local sexual harassment policies and/or procedures violates the contract. The "Regents" Community Colleges Affirmative Action Policy was approved by the Board of Regents in May, 1984. That policy contains a statement regarding sexual harassment and outlines a set of grievance resolution procedures which are presumable applicable to such allegations. Subsequent to the adoption of this policy, many community colleges republished the "Regents" sexual harassment policy statement as a separate document, and they either referenced or included the procedures detailed in the "Regents" Affirmative Action Policy. The Chancellor's designee is aware of three community colleges that currently have sexual harassment policies and/or procedure in place that differ from the policy and procedures referenced in the "Regents" policy, i.e., Greenfield, Mt. Wachusett, and Cape Cod. The timelines and other procedural provisions contained in the local policies may, however, be unnecessarily confusing and arguably represent a failure to cooperate in the implementation of the Board's Affirmative Action Policy. The Colleges have, therefore, agreed to rescind inconsistent local procedures in favor of the procedures outlined in the "Regents" Affirmative Action Policy. A grievance concerning the refusal of the Board of Regents to negotiate over the impact of a merger of an LPN program with Berkshire Community College was resolved when the Board of Regents agreed to negotiate over this merger. A grievance filed by G. Smith from Springfield Technical Community College concerning an unsatisfactory evaluation was resolved when the College agreed to redo the evaluation consistent with the contract The evaluation was redone, and the grievant received a satisfactory evaluation. A grievance filed by the MCCC concerning systemwide grievance procedures violations was resolved. The Board of Regents will consolidate unresolved similar, individual, chapter, and local grievances when a certified systemwide grievance is accepted as such by the Chancellor's designee. A systemwide grievance was filed by the MCCC concerning whether restricting DCE (Division of Continuing Education) registration for tuition remission recipients to first day of class violates applicable provisions of the Contract or provisions of the Regents' Systemwide Tuition Remission Policy. The grievance was denied. Section Ill C of the tuition policy provides that "admission to all courses/ programs in continuing education is on a space‚Äëavailable basis. Further, each local campus administration reserves the right to cancel any continuing education course in which a minimum number of full tuition‚Äëpaying students, as determined by the administration, has not enrolled." In addition, no dispute or claim of benefits arising from the policy shall be the subject of a grievance or arbitration procedure.

 

CLT ALERT "CLT Executive Director Barbara Anderson astounded the committee when she admitted that it was CLT's intent that potential, rather than actual revenues raised through new local option taxes would be subtracted from the total amount the state could raise." (MTA Today, March 21, 1986).

CLT's petition is an initiative for a law that will phase out the surtax on state personal income tax and limit state tax revenue growth to a percentage equal to the average annual percentage increase in total wages and salaries in Massachusetts for the three preceding years. Another provision of this petition is that all revenues from new local option taxes would be deducted from the base upon which a succeeding year's state tax revenues would be calculated. Every community would be forced to institute any local option taxes allowed. The community which did not institute any future local option taxes would be penalized because the amount subtracted from the total revenues raised would be based on potential earnings, not actual revenue raised. Sen. John W. Olver (D‚ÄëAmherst) said he feared that a tax cap would restrict the state's ability to offset expected federal budget cuts under the Gramm‚Äë Rudman balanced budget provisions. (MTA Today, March 21, 1986).

 

HIGHLIGHTS

The Joint Study Committee has met and formed a subcommittee to draft procedures for retraining programs. Management declined to discuss most issues because of collective bargaining being in process, and the issue of governance has gone to the table for negotiations. Management had proposed approximately nine changes in the governance proposal, and the Union accepted all but one, arbitrability. At a general meeting at Cape Cod, President Hall announced that he had been instrumental in the governance proposal not passing, since he considered his form of governance to be one of the best. On Saturday, April 12, the Higher Education Caucus met and was formally established. MCCC President, Jim Rice, was chair pro tern for the first meeting, and by‚Äë laws were passed. This Caucus is open to all members of the six higher education locals, and will meet next year prior to the MTA Annual Meeting. An Executive Committee, comprised of one delegate from each of the six locals, will meet a couple of times prior to the pre‚Äëconvention meeting to establish issues of common concern.

CALENDAR	May 3		MCCC Annual Meeting at Mt Wachusett Community College
	May 9&10		MTA Annual Meeting, Park Plaza, Boston
	May 15		Deadline for MTA Grant application
KNOW YOUR CONTRACT
	April 25		Fall courses assigned
	April 30		Preferred Fall class schedule submitted
	May 1		Recommendations to Board of Trustees for Tenure and One Year Appointment
	May 15		Student Advisement & College Service submitted (May vary depending on last day of classes)
	May21		Tenure and One Year Appointments to faculty

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MCCC Newsletter • MCCC/MTA 20 Ashburton Place, Boston, MA 02108

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