Summer Bargaining Update (7/20/99)

With just a little over a month remaining in our current contract, it is time for an update on bargaining. Jim Hines and your negotiating team have been hard at work during the Spring and Summer months. EA representatives, along with our UniServ director Mary Ann Cockman, have been meeting regularly with the College since the beginning of the Spring session. At the onset of negotiations, College representatives indicated a willingness to reach an early settlement in the current round of bargaining. This has obviously not come to pass. Our current agreement expires on August 23, 1999.

Very early on in our contract talks, two subcommittees were formed. One subcommittee has focused on contract language issues. The other subcommittee has focused on economic issues. While no tentative agreements have been reached, each committee is still working and meeting regularly. The uncertainty and timing of the leadership transition here at MCC is some cause for concern in this process. At its regular meeting in June, the MCC Board of Trustees elected to hire an outside consultant to provide "interim CEO services" for the MCC presidency. We presume that the term of this yet-to-be-named interim president will begin when our current president finishes his term on July 31, 1999. The Board's search committee hopes to find a permanent president by January 2000.

Given our emphasis on collaborative problem solving with the College, I remain hopeful that a settlement can be reached by the expiration date of our current agreement. In other words, there is no current cause for alarm. So far, our only official concern remains the uncertainty about the transition within the administration. In the event that we do not have a settlement by Monday, August 16, I will be making appointments to a special Communications Committee. This committee will have the charge of providing the community with accurate and timely information about EA bargaining issues.

I want to take this opportunity to thank members of our negotiating team, all of whom have worked many, many hours of their Spring and Summer on your behalf at the bargaining table. We look forward to a settlement in the coming weeks. In the meantime, I will continue to keep our membership informed of further developments. Have a great Summer!

SR/tp