Yakima Valley College faculty win contract

The following is from AFT Washington:

After years of bargaining, the Yakima Valley College Faculty Union reached a collective bargaining agreement with the college

YAKIMA, WA (January 17, 2025) — Yakima Valley College faculty have signed a new Collective Bargaining Agreement with Yakima Valley College after bargaining for the past 2 years. “It’s been a long process, but we’re very happy to have seen significant improvements in communication and transparency with the new leadership this fall,” said Rachel Dorn, art instructor and president of YVC’s union, referring to Interim President, Dr. Teresa Rich, who stepped into the president’s role in August.

The faculty CBA expired in June of 2023, after being rolled over for one year.. On January 9th, union leaders and administration signed the contract, which will remain in effect through 2027. Economics Instructor Brock Eubanks echoed the relief felt by many of her colleagues when she noted, “We are happy to have a new contract and be done with the bargaining process for a while.”

The new contract includes automatic salary increases for full-time faculty based on their years of service at YVC. “In the past, we only saw salary step increases if there were turnover savings, which needed to be requested, calculated, and re-bargained each year,” Dorn noted.

The contract also includes progress on the other four union priorities: including a clearer process for putting temporarily contracted faculty on tenure track, release time for the union president, re-evaluation of initial salary placement for faculty who started before 2020. In addition, all faculty who perform non-teaching work on top of their jobs will be paid equitably.

“AFT-Y leadership and our members have worked hard for several years to bargain and ratify this contract,” noted veteran faculty member Shannon Hopkins, who is in her 34th year teaching English at the college “Our marches, pickets, letters, petitions, attendance at Board of Trustees meetings, and other unity actions kept the pressure on the college for more transparency and accountability. That, and the new president’s openness to communication and compromise created an environment where we could finally see resolution to this three-year ordeal. I know I’m grateful to our faculty and administration for this wonderful news.” 

Learn more about AFT Washington at aftwa.org.