Mt. San Jacinto College associate faculty fight back against their administration's misguided priorities

UPTE members at Mt. San Jacinto Community College are heading into bargaining, and have been calling the college out on their misguided priorities and unfair proposals. These associate faculty members  have expertise in a broad range of fields. They work hard to ensure students from all walks of life, spanning from San Gorgonio Pass to Temecula, meet their academic goals, whether that be transferring to another institution, fulfilling continuing education requirements, enrolling in vocational or technical training, learning new languages, and so much more.

"We teach a majority of the college's classes. We work tirelessly to support student success, including donating thousands of hours a year in unpaid office hours. There would be no college without us. Meanwhile, management has taken on over one hundred million in new construction costs, including a $41-million-dollar athletics complex—all while crying poverty at the bargaining table with the people who keep MSJC running. Our students and associate faculty deserve so much better," said Michael Jones, who teaches in the Digital Media Department at MSJC.

Thus far, UPTE members have made proposals that will advance equitable working conditions, including seniority rights, paid office hours, fair pay increases, step advancement, and health insurance. We are also fighting for language that would broaden union access and strengthen our grievance procedure. At our last session, the district struck down all of our proposed contract language changes, attempted to change bargaining ground rules (will only meet in person going forward, ignoring past practice- zoom sessions), and made an inadequate wage proposal.

So far, MSJC's negotiating team claims, "they are not in the financial position to provide us with a fair contract." This familiar story we've all heard before is as shameful as it is untrue; MSJC has a combined total of over $194 million in cash and cash equivalents (meaning funds the system is able to turn into cash within a year) compared to $37 million in current liabilities (debt), indicating a strong financial position. Credit rating firm Moody's gives MSJC's long-term debt its second highest rating of AA, meaning it is low-risk and strong investment-grade debt.

Stay tuned for more updates on how you can support UPTE members at MSJC.