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New DCE Tentative Agreement has been ratified

The DCE Negotiations Team is happy to announce that the DCE Tentative Agreement has been ratified with 98% voting in favor of ratification. The numbers were: 710 Yes votes, 12 No votes, and 1 Unmarked. Thank you to those who were available to tally the vote.
 
The MCCC will be coordinating with Management to sign the updated DCE contract and will follow up with more information about the timeframe for when DCE members can expect to see retroactive pay. A retro pay calculator is posted on the MCCC website to help folks figure out what they should expect to see coming to them.
DeAnna Putnam (DCE Negotiations Team Chair)
SIGNED MCCC DCE 2020 CBA Final TA Feb 8 with MJM and DP esignnature

 

Summer 2020 DCE Memorandum

MEMORANDUM OF AGREEMENT
Between the Massachusetts Community College Council – DCE Unit and the Massachusetts Board of Higher Education/MA Community Colleges
The terms below are applicable only to courses offered for Summer 2020 sessions at the Massachusetts Community Colleges in the Division of Continuing Education. Unless otherwise modified below, the terms and provisions of the applicable DCE Collective Bargaining Agreement remain in effect.

Download pdf

Call to Union Members to Be on the DCE Negotiations Team

The Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) forThe Division of Continuing Education(DCE) is set to expire on August 31, 2020. A new DCE Negotiations Team needs to be constituted this fall to begin work starting in January 2020. The team, made up of the MCCC President and Vice President and a minimum of 5 DCE members, will be negotiating with management on hours, wages, and conditions of employment.

COMPENSATION: While the team is active, team members will receive a stipend each semester (fall and spring only) equal to a 3-credit course at Step Two under the DCE CBA.

DEADLINE: September 24, 2019

APPLICATION PROCESS: Please forward to presmwong@mccc-union.org a copy of your Resume/CV and a statement that addresses the following:

  1. what your role is at your community college
  2. why you want to serve on the DCE Bargaining Team
  3. what has been your involvement with the MCCC and your local chapter
  4. a description of any contract bargaining experience you have had

The DCE Bargaining team has reached tentative agreement for a new contract

DCE Tentative  Agreement Reached 7.16.18 (pdf)

The DCE Bargaining team has reached tentative agreement for a new contract, with raises of 6 percent and new rights and benefits including sick leave, tuition waiver, and more. DCE Tentative Agreement. The team will be scheduling information meetings for each chapter to explain the tentative agreement and to involve members in the ongoing fight for pay parity and rights for adjuncts. Contract ratification will be scheduled for this fall.

What MCCC is Fighting For…

After nearly two years of bargaining, Management’s wage offer is 0% the first year, 1% the second! This doesn’t even keep pace with inflation.

MCCC represents 4500 adjunct faculty who teach in the Division of Continuing Education (DCE).

  • In Massachusetts community colleges, 70% of the courses are DCE.
  • Adjunct instructors hired to teach courses in DCE do so on a semester-by-semester basis, with little job security.

We Want Equal Pay for Equal Work

  • Adjuncts earn less than half of what fulltime faculty are paid, for teaching the same courses.
  • The current starting pay is just over $1000/credit hour ($3200 per course/semester).
  • An average community college adjunct earns under $25,000 per year.
  • Many adjuncts are forced to teach at multiple colleges in order to cobble together a living wage.
  • Adjuncts receive NO BENEFITS — no health care insurance through the GIC and no employer contributions to their retirement savings. As public sector employees, they are prevented from paying into Social Security and receive no Social Security retirement benefits.
  • Because adjunct faculty are deeply committed to students, most offer office hours to their students, and participate in college service that benefits students. But they receive NO PAY for this work.
  • MCCC is part of a national movement to win pay parity, job security, and full inclusion in academic life.

The MCCC DCE union has been bargaining with the Board of Higher Education since October 2016.

 The contract has been extended several times, and it is now slated to expire on 6/30/2018.

  • The MCCC and BHE are currently in contract mediation, with a state mediator assisting the parties.
  • The DCE bargaining team is seeking a path to pay parity with fulltime faculty (MCCC “Day” bargaining unit), who are members of the same union.
  • MTA is pursuing state legislation to provide health care coverage for adjuncts in community colleges, state universities, and the UMass system. (H. 4153)
  • The pay offer from the BHE (as of 5/1/18) is for a 0% increase in 2018 and a 1% increase in 2019.
  • At the 5/1/18 meeting of the Board of Higher Education, President Ellen Kennedy of Berkshire Community College told the BHE she hopes the contract disputes will be settled soon. MCCC members believe the College Presidents appreciate the hard work and professionalism of all community college employees.
  • Conditions can be improved: Adjuncts at UMass Boston and Amherst (also members of MTA) have a path to parity and benefits if they teach a half-time course load, and have greater job security and opportunities to become fulltime faculty.

Community colleges offer the best hope for working families to have a chance at the American Dream. Our community colleges offer the best and, sometimes, only pathway toward the bright future that is the basic right of all who have chosen to make America their home.

Nevertheless, we must not allow the success of these institutions to result from the exploitation of the dedicated, hard-working adjuncts who often care more about their students than about themselves. Our Commonwealth’s community colleges deserve adequate funding. Students at Massachusetts’ community colleges deserve to learn in institutions which are adequately funded and with faculty and staff earning a fair and decent wage. All adjunct instructors at the community college deserve compensation equal to their full-time counterparts for doing the same work.