Right to Know Request and Appeal Withdrawn

On June 17, 2020, the Office of Administration sent you a notice about a Right to Know Law request and appeal filed by Ben Straka of the Freedom Foundation, in which he was seeking the middle names and day and month of birth for commonwealth employees. 
 
Mr. Straka withdrew his appeal (OOR AP#2020-0571) in the Office of Open Records. As a result, the Office of Administration’s denial of employee middle names and day and month of birth will stand, and no further action is required to prevent the disclosure of this information to Mr. Straka.

Lame Duck Social Security Cuts

As of this moment, the COVID-19 bill that Mitch McConnell is poised to introduce will include the TRUST Act, a proposal championed by Mitt Romney to set up a fast-track commission to cut Social Security and Medicare.

Chapter Chair's Message

One of the disadvantages of the Pandemic is that we, your Executive Board, have not been able to conduct membership meetings on campus. Consequently, we have begun conducting the meetings via Zoom.  

 

In the past month, we conducted two Zoom membership meetings and were able to talk about the history of our bargaining unit along with the history of our negotiations as well as the current status including some of the problems we have been experiencing at the bargaining table.

 

The meetings also gave members an opportunity to ask questions and express concerns. We encourage members to participate in this way for now as we will be scheduling these meetings on a regular basis until the College resumes normal in-person operations.

 

The following is a link to an interesting article about adjunct faculty:

 

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2020/04/20/new-report-says-many-adjuncts-make-less-3500-course-and-25000-year

 

Recent improvements to the New Jersey unemployment benefits regarding adjunct faculty are outlined in the following links:

 

Unemployment Bill

 

New UI Law is a Victory for NJ's Adjuncts

Stand Up For Safety Protest

EBRPSS has announced that their plan for the start of the 2020-21 SY is to allow parents to decide whether their children will participate in hybrid learning (2 days of face-to-face and 3 days of virtual learning) or virtual classes.  Though this plan specifies that schools will undergo a “deep clean” on Wednesdays, the plan is for custodians to simply clean high-touch areas.

Recently Accreted Titles

Over the past several months several job Classifications in the "managerial" (MP) pay plans have gone through the lengthy process of joining our union.  If you are in one of these titles, you know the effort and time it took to accomplish that task.  Endless hearings at the State Board of Labor Relations, a determination that your job titles were eligible to be in A&R, then unionization votes - in each case unanimously in favor of joining A&R.

President's Message

With respect to the Memorandum of Agreement (pdf link here) regarding furloughs during the remainder of the 2020 calendar year, we have posted the agreement on this site.
 
The vote count took place on July 17th, and the agreement was radified.
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