Politics & Government

College Workers to Get Raises Equal to Faculty

Thanks to Proposition 30, the salary increases will be awarded in July under a new MOU signed with the Santa Monica College chapter of the California School Employees' Association.

They'll have had to wait a year, but Santa Monica College's non-teaching staff will be awarded a 1.25 percent raise next summer that's equivalent to what faculty received in August.

A new Memorandum of Understanding with the California School Employees' Association was approved Tuesday by the college's Board of Trustees. It includes the raises as well as one-time bonuses of $1,000. They will both be doled out  in July 2013. 

The classified employees perform non-teaching, non-administrative roles, such as clerical and maintenance work. They had sought the immediate implementation of those benefits during negotiations for a new labor agreement, but college administrators said they hadn't planned for the costs in this fiscal year's budget.

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After the CSEA labor agreement expired June 30, the college sought to eliminate a "me too" clause promising the workers would be given the benefit of any better deal given to another union. The faculty received a 1.25 percent raise as part of its labor agreement signed in 2010.

"[I] and other classified staff pleaded with you to fulfill obligations and honor the contract you have with classified staff," classified employee Willis Barton told Trustees at a board meeting in early October, according to the student newspaper The Corsair. "Either due to apathy, arrogance, or both, you decided to renege on those obligations."

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The new MOU with CSEA makes it clear the raises and bonuses were granted only because of the passage of Proposition 30, a measure that will increase sales and income taxes to fund K-12 public schools and community colleges. Officials were prepared to make up to $8 million in cuts had the November ballot measure failed.

See also: Voters Spare Spring Class Cuts at Santa Monica College

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