Board of Trustees: Where are you?

BOARD OF TRUSTEES: WHERE ARE YOU?

Here we are eight months and eleven negotiating sessions into contract negotiations and where are we? STALLED.

We were scheduled to meet with the Board of Trustees’ attorney, John Gross, and the College team on Thursday, 1/23/14. However, on the afternoon of 1/22/14 our NYSUT Labor Relations Specialist, Judy Sandler, received a call from Mr. Gross indicating that he had not met with the BOT, as promised, to discuss the outstanding contract issues. This means he was unprepared for our upcoming negotiating session scheduled for the next day.

Why should this have occurred? After all, he had 41 days between our last negotiating session on 12/12/13 to meet with his client, the BOT. He claimed he was planning to meet with the BOT on the night of 1/21/14. However, the snow storm prevented this. In other words, the plan was to wait until the last minute for Mr. Gross and the BOT to meet and discuss our contract. Without such a meeting, their team was now unprepared to move forward with productive discussions with the NCCFT Negotiating Committee.

Putting aside that it was irresponsible to wait until the last minute to discuss our contract with the Board, there were many options for the Board and Mr. Gross to “meet” and discuss. The virtual meeting possibilities are endless in today’s wired society. Yet they chose not to avail themselves of any of these options. This is an excuse we would not even accept from our students.