For Zoom link: email David or check your outlook inbox for subject line "Wage Negotiation All Faculty Survey and invitations to open faculty forums (multiple dates)"
As we build a community-wide campaign to support our demand for fair pay, we need to hear your personal stories. We want to hear directly from you what is a fair level of compensation.
There are also links to open faculty forums hosted by your faculty negotiation team to listen to your demands and expectations for the upcoming negotiations. The dates are scheduled for January 20th, January 27th, and February 2nd.
We need to hear about the impact of the high cost of living on you and your family. We need to learn from you about compensation levels earned by individuals with your same experience and education at other institutions and in industry. If you’ve taken part in a faculty hiring committee and seen the impact of our Colleges low wages on the success of those candidate recruiting efforts, please share those experiences. Please share with us if you are aware of faculty that left our College due to low pay or we forced to work a second or third job to earn enough money to support their families.
Finally, we want to learn about your level of interest and availability to support our campaign to communicate the importance of fair compensation to our college Presidents, Chancellor, Board of Trustees and our community partners at the City of Seattle, Seattle Public Schools, and elected representatives in Olympia.
These topics will also be discussed during upcoming open faculty forums. This survey is sent to all faculty because we know that not everyone is able to participate in the scheduled zoom events and we want everyone’s voice to be heard.
Background on your wages during the current Contract which runs from July 1, 2021 – June 30, 2023. Faculty received a COLA pay increase on 7/1/2021 in the amount of 1.7%. The Legislature also approved a COLA pay increase in the amount of 3.2% effective 7/1/2022. AFT is currently working in Olympia with the Legislature to increase this COLA based on the high rate of inflation in 2021. Faculty will be kept informed on the outcome of these efforts. In addition, the State of Washington recently completed negotiations with the union represented all classified staff across the state for a pay increase in the amount of 3.25% effective 7/1/2022. Historically, when the State has approved a pay increase for this large group of classified staff, it has funded that same amount for all State employees. This is not official until the Legislature funds it.
To compare our pay to local colleges in King County, the latest State published faculty survey is from the 2019-2020 academic year. A new survey is due out in April. Colleges within King County that pay Full-Time Faculty more than Seattle Colleges are:
Bellevue 9.6% more
Green River 3.5% more
Renton 7.7% more
Shoreline 3.4% more
Your AFT Negotiation Team is also hosting a series of faculty open forums for our members to share any information you want us to have in preparation for the upcoming negotiations. We will continue to host these sessions throughout the entire wage negotiation process.
Thank you,
David