Governing Board Rules Out Layoffs of College Faculty

*By Nickolas Furr and Enrique Raymundo

Following a tense four-and-a-half hour closed session, the Southwestern College Governing Board announced it would not send March 15 layoff notices to the college faculty. This elicited subdued reactions of relief from the faculty present at 11 p.m. and anger from Bruce MacNintch, the head of SWC’s classified employee union.

The decision to not send the notices came just 11 days before the district’s March 15 deadline required by the state to lay off faculty.

Corina Soto / Photo: Kristina Saunders

Board President Humberto Peraza read a statement into the record explaining why the board had chosen to remain in negotiations with the faculty union – the Southwestern College Educators’ Association (SCEA) – instead of initiating layoffs to help solve the campus budget crisis.

“The damage layoffs would cause the community would far outweigh any assistance it would provide to balancing the budget,” Peraza said.

MacNintch, president of the SWC chapter of the California State Employees’ Association (CSEA), reacted angrily to the decision.

“We negotiated, being told layoffs would occur if we didn’t agree to this deal, and now they won’t happen anyway,” MacNintch said.

CSEA had accepted a 5 percent pay cut under the threat of district layoffs.

SWC administration has been locked in budget negotiations with the three main constituency groups – SCEA, CSEA and the Southwestern Community College District Administrators’ Association (SCCDAA) – for several months. At the February board meeting Albert Roman, SWC’s vice president of human resources, outlined the process by which layoffs could take place.

Campus Mourns Phil Lopez

Phil Lopez

On the evening of December 14, Southwestern College lost one of its most visible icons. Philip Lopez, English professor and longtime union crusader, died of a sudden, massive heart attack minutes after being admitted to Sharp Hospital in Chula Vista. It was the day before his 65th birthday.

By all accounts his death was unexpected. He had spent the afternoon in what were described as successful negotiations between the faculty union and the college administration.

Kathleen Canney Lopez, professor of computer information systems who describes herself as “Phil’s former wife and his comrade,” said Lopez sat down at his Chula Vista home with a stack of paperwork. Feeling chest pains, he took aspirin and called 911. It took only minutes for the paramedics to arrive. He was rushed into the hospital and died there less than two minutes later.

“It was quick,” Canney Lopez said. “It was painless.”

Unions Seek Corner Lot PLA

Governing Board President Tim Nader’s recent statement that there is little chance he would sign a union-favoring Project Labor Agreement (PLA) for the first phase of Proposition R construction has pro-labor activists crying foul. But pro-business advocates said they are also feeling unsatisfied with the process.

With Phase I construction on the $389 million Prop R project planned for early next year and no signed labor contracts in place, union representatives and workers tried recently to convince Nader and the rest of the board that there is still time to sign a PLA that would go into effect immediately. Union members said the agreement would benefit the college, community and construction workers of the district.

But none of that may matter. Governing board members insist that construction management contracts already in place would make agreeing to a new PLA difficult, at least for Phase I of the five-phase project.

Management contracts oversee money, while construction contracts oversee the hiring of subcontractors and workers. Former Vice President of Fiscal Services Nicholas Alioto signed management contracts with Seville Construction Services for project management. The former governing board approved. Echo Pacific Construction was hired by Alioto to handle construction contracts, but the current board terminated Echo Pacific’s contract this fall. Balfour Beatty has been approached by the college about assuming Echo Pacific’s terminated contract and assuming responsibility for construction and labor. No contract has been approved.