Message stirs up teachers

GLENDALE — More than 70 faculty members packed the Glendale Community College Board of Trustees meeting Tuesday over an e-mail message from the college district's contract negotiating team that had teachers in an uproar.

District negotiators sent the e-mail on Wednesday to the Glendale College Guild, the college's teacher's union, implying finality to a negotiation process that has been going on for six months, guild President Mike Allen said.

"The district negotiating team sent an e-mail last week to a list of guild members, rejecting our most recent contract offer before they talked to the negotiating team or the guild leadership," Allen said. "The e-mail also contained factual inaccuracies. For these reasons and others, we believe it's an act of bad faith or not good-faith bargaining."

The district has offered faculty a 7.3% salary increase for the 2006-07 school year. But the guild wants a 7.5% raise, plus a formula-based raise for 2007-08 — based on monies coming into the school — said Isabelle Saber, the guild's chief negotiator.

Trustee President Armine Hacopian addressed the crowd of discontented teachers after the trustees reconvened from an extended closed session.

"It has become very clear that there has been miscommunication on a variety of levels," Hacopian said.

The e-mail states the college district's offer to the guild, but does not mention the guild negotiating team's offer. At the end of the e-mail, it states that the "guild did not accept this package and presented a counter offer, which was not accepted by the district," which implies finality to the negotiations while bargaining was still taking place, said Isabelle Saber, the guild's chief negotiator.

The e-mail's sender may be in violation of laws and under the Educational Employment Relations Act, Allen said.

College President Audre Levy said the e-mail does not violate negotiating protocols.

"It is not [in violation] if you have sunshined something on the table," Levy said. "It would be in violation if it weren't sunshined in the negotiating meeting."

The information in the e-mail is not the district's final offer, Levy said. And the only reason it was sent out was in reaction to an earlier e-mail sent by guild members, she said. Guild representatives could not be reached for comment on Monday evening regarding the earlier e-mail.