Human Resources

Negotiation Status

Negotiations for the 2025 - 2028 contract, known as successor bargaining, began February 7, 2025, for the next Federation of Teachers 1493 contract with the San Mateo County Community College District. At each session, AFT 1493 or the District introduces proposals and counter-proposals, working towards tentative agreements.

• Topics/articles sunshined by AFT Local 1493  
• Topics/articles sunshined by the District  

Negotiation Summary

Dates	Proposals Discussed
February 7, 2025	District Proposal - Ground Rules Governing Negotiations   AFT Counter - Ground Rules Governing Negotiations

 

 

 

 

San Mateo County CCD Negotiations Update Regarding February 7, 2025 Negotiation Session

To promote open communication with the community, employees and other educational partners and interested individuals, and to keep everyone informed about the status of San Mateo County Community College District’s (“District”) negotiations with San Mateo Community College Federation of Teachers, Local 1493, American Federation of Teachers, AFL-CIO (“AFT”), the Board of Trustees has asked its team to provide factual and timely updates about negotiations with AFT. 

Background of Prior Successor Contract Negotiations with AFT

During the last round of negotiations for a successor contract, the District and AFT negotiated from approximately May 2022 through October 2023, and reached an agreement that was ratified and approved by November 29, 2023, almost 17 months after the prior contract expired on June 30, 2022.

Pre-Planning and Proactive Efforts to Create Healthier and More Productive Negotiations

Pursuant to the District and AFT’s common goals to create a healthier environment for collaborative, productive, efficient, and timely negotiations, District Chancellor Dr. Melissa Moreno met with AFT Co-Presidents Rika Yonemura-Fabian and Tamara Perkins, starting in Fall 2024, to discuss what things they could do differently for this upcoming round of negotiations to achieve their common goals, among other things.  

For example, in or about late October 2024, the District and AFT leaders agreed to try to complete bargaining by June 30, 2025. To that end, Chancellor Dr. Moreno proposed scheduling weekly negotiation sessions to occur every Friday from 10 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. starting on January 10, 2025 and through June 30, 2025. AFT Co-Presidents Perkins and Yonemura-Fabian responded that they agreed to scheduling weekly negotiation meetings on every Friday, but due to some of their negotiators’ schedules, they requested that the negotiations occur on Friday afternoons at specified time frames. AFT also requested that negotiations commence at the beginning of February 2025. Here is an excerpt of an email exchange with the Chancellor: 

 Also, weekly meetings sound GREAT! We are excited to hear that we can do that. Unfortunately, the suggested time does not work for some of our negotiators. Friday 1:30-5:30pm, though, would work great, except for the first Fridays when division meetings happen. Can we have 2-5:30pm, only for the first Fridays, and for the rest of Fridays 1:30-5:30pm? Please let us know what you think, 

Tamara and Rika

The District agreed to AFT’s requested schedule and published the following eighteen (18) scheduled negotiation sessions on its website, as follows: 

February 7, 2025
February 21, 2025
February 28, 2025
March 7, 2025
March 14, 2025
March 21, 2025
March 28, 2025
April 11, 2025
April 18, 2025
April 25, 2025
May 2, 2025
May 9, 2025
May 16, 2025
May 30, 2025
June 6, 2025
June 13, 2025
June 20, 2025
June 27, 2025

Moreover, the AFT Co-Presidents raised concerns about the District’s Chief Negotiator from prior negotiations and requested that the District change its Chief Negotiator for the upcoming negotiations. The District Chancellor stated that if the District would consider changing its Chief Negotiator, than AFT should consider doing the same for a fresh start for negotiations. Although the District was not required to change its Chief Negotiator, in the spirit of collaboration and doing things differently for this round of negotiations, the District did change its Chief Negotiator for this round of negotiations. In addition, the Chancellor worked with the Board of Trustees to add special closed sessions to the calendar for the sole purpose of negotiations to be sure that finding time to meet with the Board would not hold up forward progress.

On January 15, 2025, the District and AFT leaders met to discuss the logistics of bargaining and agreed to at least six (6) items regarding such logistics.  Present at this meeting on behalf of the District were Chancellor Dr. Moreno, Richard Storti, Executive Vice Chancellor – Administrative Services, and Julie Johnson, Chief Human Resources Officer.  Present on behalf of AFT were Chet Lexvold, Joaquin Rivera-Contreras, and AFT Co-Presidents Rika Yonemura-Fabian and Tamara Perkins.

On January 16, 2025, Chancellor Dr. Moreno sent a summary of the six (6) logistical items that the parties discussed and agreed to, and she invited any feedback and/or corrections. On January 17, 2025, AFT Co-President Yonemura-Fabian responded via email and stated in relevant part: “Although the issues we are negotiating could be complex, I think there is much we can fix by instrumentally fixing the procedures and to my understanding, it is our first time to explicitly do this. I appreciate the process!”

On February 7, 2025, Chancellor Dr. Moreno emailed AFT Co-Presidents Perkins and Yonemura-Fabian and provided them with the proposed agenda at 11:16 a.m., approximately three hours prior to the parties’ negotiations. The agenda included a discussion of finalizing the ground rules for the parties’ negotiations, as well as listed the agreed-upon weekly Friday negotiation sessions through June 30, 2025.

What Are Ground Rules?

The Public Employment Relations Board (“PERB”) has held that ground rules are a mandatory subject of bargaining, and the parties must negotiate over a grounds rules proposal in the same manner as they must bargain over proposals about substantive terms or conditions of employment.  (County of Orange (2018) PERB Decision No. 2594-M.)  

Examples of ground rules include but are not limited to the following: time and place for bargaining to start; the order of issues to be discussed; the final settlement conditions that may be imposed; questions of ratification and approval; whether negotiations should be confidential; whether negotiations should be public with observers present; whether recording of negotiations is allowed; and a variety of other similar procedural matters. In short, PERB has held that “ground rules directly regulate the bargaining relationship between the parties.”  (County of Orange (2018) PERB Decision No. 2594-M; Petaluma City Elementary School District/Joint Union High School District (2016) PERB Decision Number 2485; Ross School District Board of Trustees (1978) PERB Decision No. 48.)

In determining that ground rules constitute a mandatory subject of bargaining, PERB explained that ground rules are “the most straightforward path to improving communication between parties, maximizing their opportunities to achieve a strong relationship, and preventing unilateral self-help designed to create a more favorable playing field for one side in future negotiations.”  (County of Orange (2018) PERB Decision No. 2594-M.)

District and AFT Negotiations Commence on February 7, 2025

The negotiations commenced on February 7, 2025, at 2:30 p.m. and were scheduled to conclude at 5:30 p.m. The parties spent approximately ten (10) minutes with introductions, including the District introducing its Co-Chief Negotiators Ellen Wu and Dr. Storti, and AFT introducing its Chief Negotiator, Monica Malamud.

The District then presented its ground rules proposal and explained the rationale behind its proposal, which took approximately forty-five (45) minutes. The District also e-mailed its written ground rules proposal to AFT. (See District’s ground rules proposal  .)  At approximately 3:24 p.m., AFT asked to caucus to review the District’s ground rules proposal, and AFT spent approximately twenty (20) minutes in caucus. At approximately 3:54 p.m., AFT asked for the parties to return to the joint session.   

In the joint session, AFT’s Chief Negotiator stated that the AFT bargaining team could not agree to the five (5) negotiation sessions scheduled between May 22, 2025, and June 30, 2025, because this was during their summer recess, and they did not know their schedules. This statement was different and in apparent contradiction to what AFT Co-Presidents Perkins and Yonemura-Fabian agreed to with Chancellor Dr. Moreno back in October 2024 regarding the scheduled weekly negotiation sessions through June 30, 2025.   

Moreover, during the February 7, 2025 negotiation session, the District asked AFT that, when the parties reconvened at their next session on February 21, 2025, to provide dates that AFT was available in order to reschedule the five (5) dates that they were now requesting to cancel. AFT declined to provide such available dates at the next session.    

Regarding the District’s ground rules proposal, AFT’s Chief Negotiator stated that AFT’s response was “No” and that AFT was not interested in negotiating ground rules. The District’s Chief Negotiator explained that by law, ground rules are a mandatory subject of bargaining, and the parties must negotiate over the District’s ground rules proposal in the same manner as they must negotiate over any other mandatory subject of bargaining. 

At approximately 4:20 p.m., AFT asked to return to caucus to further discuss the District’s ground rules proposal. AFT remained in their caucus for approximately one hour and four minutes and requested to return to the joint session at 5:24 p.m.  

Because the parties agreed to conclude the negotiation session at 5:30 p.m., there was insufficient remaining time for AFT to present their written counterproposal to the District’s ground rules proposal. AFT e-mailed its written counterproposal to the District. (See AFT’s counterproposal  .) Before the session concluded at 5:30 p.m., the District proposed setting the agenda for the next negotiation session and asked AFT to provide the District during the next session with additional dates they were available to negotiate, and AFT declined both requests.

The parties’ next scheduled negotiation session is February 21, 2025.