COHE-SDSU Group Grievances

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Less than ten years ago, COHE-SDSU had 33 members. Since then, nearly two-thirds of those members have retired. Yet, we currently have more than 80 members!

Why has COHE membership nearly tripled at SDSU? We are the only organization that is specifically dedicated to defending faculty rights.

We aggressively and persistently advocate on behalf of individual faculty and the faculty as a whole.

Without a legally-binding agreement and an organization to defend it, faculty have no rights.

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COHE-SDSU News

Dear SDSU faculty,

As you know, the SDSU administration has made some tough decisions to reduce our services to match the current level of resources. These have included faculty layoffs.

Like others, we wonder whether these overall cuts also apply to administration. We recognize the elimination of a few administrative positions, including at least one director-level position through reduction in force. Are these cuts occurring equally among the central BOR staff and our campus' athletics? We have not been informed as yet.

While we may question the wisdom of closing specific campus units, we do not have contractual rights to oppose those decisions. However, the collective bargaining agreement clearly details the rules for reduction in force and other personnel decisions affecting the faculty.

POTENTIAL GROUP GRIEVANCES

COHE is considering group grievances on three actions:

1. Reduction in force of tenure-track faculty before term (or non-tenure-track) are laid off.

2. Conversion of tenure-track faculty to term appointments.

3. Reduction of 11- or 12-month appointment to 10-month, including questions about the size of the actual pay cut, treatment of paid leave, and the lack of an option to move to 9-month.

If you are affected by any of these decisions, we want to help.

We have had recent success in a group grievance on our campus. Since these are personnel matters, we respect the confidentiality of the departmental faculty. In essence, the department issued a set of workload documents that required additional work without compensating faculty properly. They backed down after we filed the group grievance.

The advantage of a group grievance is that no individual must step forward and be subjected to possible repercussions. Indeed, individual faculty members are not named in the initial grievance. COHE is the only named grievant. Of course, individuals may become named as the case matures. Moreover in a group grievance, all affected faculty members' change in status are evaluated.

However, to protect all of your rights, we strongly encourage individual faculty to file their own grievance. The Step 1 form is quite simple; a paragraph to outline the facts and a statement of proposed administrative action. Please note that you have fifteen working days from when you "knew or should have known" about the action. These working days are counted whenever the Board office is open.

We invite any faculty who faces any of the above situations to contact us, whether you are a dues-paying COHE member or not. We own the contract and provide assistance to any bargaining unit member, at least through the presidential stage of a grievance. Of course, dues-paying COHE members also rely on the expertise and assistance of SDEA staff, including legal counsel.

Reply to this message at garyaguiar1@gmail.com but please use a non-university email account for this confidential correspondence.