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Some
instructors paying multiple union fees
By
Matt Logan
Daily Forty-Niner
Staff Writer
Part-time
instructors working on California community
college campuses are being charged more
than once for union dues, or "fair
share fees," paid to the California
Federation of Teachers (CFT).
Many
part-time instructors have to work at more
than one school to make enough money. The
reason for this is the CFT's Los Angeles
Community College District will not allow
part-time teachers to teach more than 3
classes or nine units at one school at a
time. Part-time instructors make less money
than full-time teachers instruct the same
classes. Many of the part-time instructors
would work full-time at any given school
if the hours and positions were available.
The positions are not available, so they
have become multiple commuting teachers,
which earned them the nickname, "freeway
fliers."
Frank
Catalano is one of those freeway flier instructors.
Catalano works at three different campuses
in different counties and as such has to
pay three union dues to the CFT. Each district
has a local union chapter that assesses
these fees, which are of various amounts.
Catalano pays about $26 towards dues for
teaching in Ventura County. Dues are automatically
taken out of each paycheck by separate local
offices that all work under the same union.
"We
all have to pay for certain things, it's
just the method in which they do it that
frustrates me," said Catalano.
Harry
Korn is the president of the Ventura County
Federation of College Teachers local 1828.
Catalano works at one of the three schools
Korn represents.
"Our
local union covers Moore Park, Ventura and
Oxnard colleges. No one is charged ‘fair
share fees' [dues] more than once at our
schools, I can't speak for the other local
union offices," said Korn, would not
comment concerning the multiple union due
charges of the CFT.
While
the CFT collects duplicated fees, Catalano
and other instructors have no idea what
the CFT uses the money for. "[What
if] the money is being used for political
agendas that I may or may not agree with?
We have a right to know where our money
is going," he said.
Complaints
regarding the multiple charges have reached
the California State Senate.
"Senators
Dick Ackerman, Dennis Hollingsworth and
John Campbell are currently working on creating
a law that will put an end to [multiple
‘fair share fees']," Catalano
said.
"When
I asked why I am getting charged more than
once for the same thing they just told me
that they weren't doing anything illegal.
It's kind of insidious," he said.
Part-time
teachers affected by these duplicated fees
are demanding a solution.
Catalano
said, "The solution should create a
uniform dues structure that takes into consideration
part-time teachers who work within the jurisdiction
of multiple local union offices."
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