Tacoma Comm. College staffers ratify historic first contract

TACOMA (Dec. 9, 2014) — After more than two years or bargaining with Tacoma Community College (TCC) management, Student Support Staff made history on Monday by unanimously ratifying their first-ever contract. It gives compensation increases and new workplace rights to some of the most familiar and trusted faces on the TCC campus, including academic advisors, educational planners, the Running Start coordinator, support specialists and the Career Center coordinator.

The Washington Federation of State Employees, Council 28 (WFSE) reports that the compensation package includes:

► 3% across the board increase effective 7/1/15

► 1.8% across the board increase effective 7/1/16

► $650 addition to base pay for those who have achieved their Master’s Degree in a relevant discipline, effective upon submission of documentation.

► Memorandum of Understanding to address 2% Adjustment for certain job classes to do salary survey with apples to apples comparisons.

The TCC Student Support Staff also gained a number of non-economic rights, including a first-ever grievance procedure; a discipline article that includes the just cause (due process rights) standard for discipline and a process to remove negative information from an employee’s personnel file; and a layoff and recall article that honors years of service at the community college.

The tentative agreement came after a months-long push (see reports at The Stand from June 16 and Oct. 16) by members and allies in the Classified Staff at TCC, other WFSE members, other unions and community groups. That burst of public activity helped break a logjam in negotiations.

Congratulations to the TCC Student Support Staff for their unanimous ratification of their new — and first-ever — 2015-2017 collective bargaining agreement!