Vote of No Confidence NOW!!!

What more does it take for Jon Larson to do to the faculty so that we all stand up and say, "no"? Jon Larson is FIRING, roughly, twenty non-tenured faculty members in the spring. Jon Larson has set up an arbitrary percentage of faculty who are allowed to aquire tenure. Jon Larson is hiring non-tenure track instructors on a twelve-month contract. He did not negotiate these changes. He is just doing them.

Jon Larson is insisting that full-time faculty all teach an 8am class. Why? The current proposal from the administration, the one that we are currently at impasse on, allegedly includes the provision that all full-time faculty will be in their offices from 8am until 4p Monday through Friday. When we are not teaching classes, we are to be tutoring students. The mandatory 8am class this semester will turn into five mandatory 8am classes the following semester which will, in turn, become the aforementioned criteria plus a mandatory 2p or 3:15p class. That will have us all here from 8am-4p-all without negotiating one change. That's how you circumvent a contract.

Faculty must stand up to this bully now or else we will have nothing else for which to stand. He is sysematically gutting our contract and we have done nothing to prevent it. It's time to tell Larson and the members of the Board of Trustees that we have had it. We have NO CONFIDENCE is this megalomaniac and bully.

It is time to stop the hand-wringing. It is time to stop being a bunch of pansies. Stand up and vote NO CONFIDENCE. Do it now because, soon, you will have no one to blame but yourselves. Stop being cowards!

 

Comments

[rotEdurf]

get cheap coach clearance for more detail

[evinsnah]

sell designer china and get big save

[Patrick Mitchell]

At the rate they're going, tomorrow they will abolish the union, the next day they will require all faculty to teach classes starting at 7 am and ending at 11 pm (and spend the time in-between scrubbing toilets), and the day after that tell you that you have to do it all for free, and thank King Jon and the Wee Vee Pee for the privilege.

At what point do you say "No, I don't think so" and bring in the NJEA (or the NEA) to smack King Jon and tell him to sit down and shut up?!

[Herb Germann]

Again I am attempting to post a brief report on yesterday's Board meetiong but the comments will not post. Is there some reason why the message does not appear?

[HadIt]

Pat:Please consider bringing legal representation with you to this meeting.

Isn't there a law against harassment of union officials?

Is this a message to any/all FAOCC officers? Become a union officer and we will harass you?

[BlueStateBlues]

Ladies and Gentlemen, get a load of this one. dick has charged a couple of faculty members with "bullying" and wants to meet with them! dick! King of the bullies.

He has charged the president of the FAOCC with bullying. Doesn't this charge qualify as bullying as it seems that dick is trying to silence Pat with his charges?

dick...are you getting desperate?

[BlueStateBlues]

Regarding the mandatory 8am classes, neither the faculty in the school of humanities nor the faculty in health & human performance are being required to have an 8am class.

Why is Math, Science, & Technology being forced to have an 8am class?

Perhaps the answer lies in the make-up of the Executive Committee & Grievance Committee members the majority of whom are from MST.

Yet another example of anti-union animus & a hostile work environment.

dick-you are a disgrace to humanity.

[who else is there]

Again, thanks so much, Herb.
Like so many other persons of integrity on the OCC campus (both past and present), you attracted the ire of insecure administrators and, therefore, you were dismissed. All you did was ask questions, speak truth to power, and ultimately refuse to back down when you became "inconvenient."
Please continue to post on this site. Your words not only give the rest of us some clearly expressed hope, they also continue to validate all of the contributions that you made to OCC.

[Herb Germann]

GOOD LUCK! SUPPORT EACH OTHER.

Herb

[Herb Germann]

Good Faith and Obligation to Bargain

If wise people deal with one another in good faith, then most differences can be resolved amicably.

The concept of "good faith" is entrenched in history. The doctrine has been traced back to the Romans with Latin expression "pacta sunt servanda" or, "what is suitable for the good of mankind as to observe the things that parties have agreed upon."

Good Faith - implies an obligation to negotiate in good faith. A duty consisting of two obligations:

FIRST - to Act "in Good Faith. SECOND - the Obligation to Bargain.

The obligation to bargain is positive in nature because it requires the parties to reach a conclusion for a successor agreement. Ocean County College has failed in this mandatory obligation thereby creating a hostile labor relationship, which is detrimental, the mission and goals of the College.

Ignoring “good faith” ultimately will harm Ocean County College, as an institution of higher learning and ultimately be detrimental to a healthy academic environment. The actions of College authorities have jeopardized mutual obligations of trust and confidence necessary in a functional collegial relationship. When good faith is ignored bad faith occurs.

Accordingly, the process of collective bargaining needs to be respected. “Good faith” is about telling the truth. It means employers and employees are not allowed to do anything that misleads or deceives one another.

Good faith means tenure-track faculty should not be barred from tenure by an arbitrary tenure quota imposed without collective bargaining. It means that a 12-month non-tenure/non-union faculty [a term and condition of employment] should not be imposed in violation of the law.

The reputation of Ocean County College has been undermined by the hostile actions of an executive administration. The most important college resource is the teaching human resource. Why would you want to abuse this resource?

ANJCCF desires to see the parties resolve their labor dispute through fair and “good faith” process of collective bargaining and puts forth a “Call for Action.”

Herb Germann, Professor of History OCC 1970-2008
Treasurer, ANJCCF Association of New Jersey County College Faculty
November 7, 2010

[WebMaster]

Sorry, Herb, I could not find any settings that limit or expand the word count of comments. Thank you for posting here and for your continued support.

[Been Here, Done This]

There is an extremely important article regarding the consequences of students taking courses on-line in the 11/5/10 national edition of the New York Times. The article appears on page one.

[Herb Germann]

Why won't my message, an essay of "Good Faith" post? Is there a word limitation? I did manage to post the first i/3 of the message, but the last 2/3 keeps getting rejected.
Please advise.

herb Germann

[Herb Germann, Prof. OCC 1970-2008]

Good faith in Employment Relationships

If wise people deal with one another in good faith, then most differences should be able to be resolved amicably.

To my colleagues at OCC: This is a time for unity and a stand against the dark forces that are not only, out to break the union, intimidate individual faculty, eliminate tenure, but will also ultimately, be detrimental to a healthy academic environment necessary in higher education.

At the November 5, 2010 meeting of ANJCCF: The Association of New Jersey County College Faculties adopted a motion to support the faculty at OCC. But all of you must be on board. Failure to step up to the plate in confronting the injustice will lead to the destruction of the gains we have made in 40 years; collective bargaining, tenure, Instructional prerogatives, academic freedom, paid health care, institutional pension contributions, and much more. Already these attacks are taking place at Ocean County College in violation of the law.

[FedUp]

Where's the rhetoric? It's a simple yes-no question. Are you confident that the decisions and policies are in the best interests of the college? Yes or no.

[BlueStateBlues]

The Vote of No Confidence taken by the faculty at Luzerne CC is available at the new FAOCC website. It looks like a blue print for what we should be doing at OCC. Check it out!

[Webmaster]

Patrick: The administration's current "proposal" allegedly has the 5 days per week, 8-4 work hour in it. This new forcing us to take an 8am class is, in my opinion, a way to get this proposal in place without negotiating it. You're right, we cannot be forced to sit in our office under this current contract, but if your classes begin at 8am and end at 3:15 and you live an hour away, what do you do? I believe that's what they are betting on. Faculty will sit there like obedient soldiers in their offices.

The time to vote NO CONFIDENCE is way past due. Otherwise, larson & strada will just keep chipping away at whatever few rights we have left.

[Patrick Mitchell]

Under the recently expired contract (which is still in effect), administration cannot assign a teaching schedule with a longer than 8 hour day. (Right?) They also cannot make you hold more than 5 office hours. They can assign you to teach an 8 am class, and they can assign you to teach a class that ends at 4 pm (or earlier), but they cannot make you sit in your office all day in between. That is, unless you let them make you. (Aside: how can they keep you there 5 days a week, 8-4, when classes are MR and TF?)

FWIW, I was one of the few who was in favor of a VoNC back in 2005-06, but we were outnumbered by faculty who felt that a VoNC would be bad for negotiations. There was no VoNC, and yet from what I hear the new contract was nothing to crow about. Just do it. It's long overdue.

[Buzzin' By]

Here are some random thoughts to fight the current decisions and any other rhetoric before it becomes policy:
1. Filibuster. At school and dept. meetings this week, speak up in a loud unified voice about the concerns we express on the blog and refuse to be silenced.Our concerns should trump the same blah blah blah on the meeting agendas. What will they do? Call secuirty? Slap Article Xs on us all? We can be certain admin will hear about it.
2. Attend the Board meeting with some type of petition and if denied access, wait in the hallway and distribute petitions.
3.Openly refuse extra committee work and hours that are not historically a part of our contract; If we don't have a contract, can we picket? I'm not kidding.Can they fire all of us?
Just a few ideas to make a statement and publicize our plight.Maybe it's not perfect but at least it's a start.

[BlueStateBlues]

and the last time that there was a VoNC, it was Hubbs and Strada who got the vote to pass so that they could oust Shaw and replace him with Larson. How did that work out for us?

[BlueStateBlues]

Stand up & vote No Confidence. How is that rhetoric?it's the beginning of the faculty taking a stand but every time it's mentioned, dick lobbies all of the administrative apologists, who then start a campaign to undermine the significance of the vote, further scare the faculty, & squash the vote itself.

The leadership is there. The time for the VoNC is now. That's not rhetoric, it's action.

[Stupefied]

We aren't cowards, we just lack vision and motivation. How are we supposed to "stand up" behind rhetoric? What is the plan that we all can take specific actions to support? Where are the leaders who are organizing the enegery and effort of the faculty body?