Press

A snippet from a recent article from The Seattle Collegian, the student paper at Central:

Faculty’s struggle to stay afloat not only affects their day-to-day lives, but it also directly impacts students. If teachers aren’t paid enough to sustain themselves, how will they be able to cultivate the best learning experience for students? Every student enrolled at SCC has probably noticed a feeling of vacancy that lingers throughout the school. Classes have been cut, programs have been cut, and during certain hours of the day, it feels like you’re walking in an abandoned building. We feel the effects of underfunding everyday.

Sophia Bruscato, an international student at SCC, explains that lack of funding has hindered her passion for singing and taking music courses. “The entire building dedicated for music students and classes, which has hundreds of keyboards, pianos, rooms, and a theater, is completely closed except for third-party usage of renting the theater for random events…the entire building and its resources are useless for hundreds of students who need them and would benefit from them,” Bruscato says. She also laments the shortage of in-person classes. “By summer,” she says, “I will have paid nearly $40,000 to sit in my basement watching online classes. Out of the 73 credits I’ve taken/am taking so far, only three of my classes were in-person. It is obviously not a matter of COVID anymore, it is lack of funding and lack of resources.”

Link to the full article: "What faculty salary negotiations mean for students," by Mo Dulitz, Seattle Collegian, March 2, 2023

A snippet from the article about the April 24 rally:

On Tuesday, April 24, a group of Seattle Colleges professors protested outside the Broadway Performance Hall before walking to their district headquarters, Siegal Center. Inside, union leaders, who professors say aren’t fully representing their needs, were bargaining. Their salaries for the next three years hung in the balance between the 0% raise professors say was initially offered by Seattle Colleges, the 15% raise the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) Seattle Local 1789 is bargaining for, and the 40% raise they say is necessary to keep them afloat during historic national inflation in a city where the cost of living is over 50% above the national average.

Professors and some of their students chanted phrases like “Let us in” and “Work with us, not against us,” “We will win,” and “At the table, not on the menu.” They held up signs to passersby and honking cars reading “0% is not enough,” “Fund Faculty Raises,” “AFT Worker Solidarity,” and “SCD Says Faculty are Worth 0%.” 

Link to the full article: "Seattle Colleges Professors Protest Stagnant Salaries While Inflation Soars," by Ari Robin McKenna, South Seattle Emerald, April 28, 2022

A snippet from the article: 

The first rounds of negotiations were held behind closed doors, with the rank and file members (RAF) kept in the waiting room. The legality of the practice of closed-door negotiations is ambiguous and not settled case law, Stofer said. First rounds of negotiations are held between the two negotiating parties “[p]er standing practice,” Bonaccorso wrote.

Regardless, the decision to be kept out of the room is not sitting well with many union members.

 “The most successful union actions in the last 5 years have been in open negotiations,” said Dr. Jay McLean-Riggs, a RAF member.

As RAF member Dave Ellenwood put it, “Transparency resonates with everyone unless you have something to hide.”
 

Link to the full article: "Seattle Central College teachers call for higher pay in negotiations with admin," Real Change, March 30, 2022