On February 21, 2017, the negotiations teams for the Monterey Peninsula College Teachers Association (MPCTA) and the Monterey Peninsula College (MPC) met for the ninth session of negotiations during the 2016-17 fiscal year.  To date, the parties have exchanged proposals on fifteen articles in the MPCTA collective bargaining agreement (CBA).  

These negotiations are unusually significant for MPC, its students, and staff because of the need to reform and modernize MPC’s operations to meet the current expectations of California community colleges.  Those expectations have been verified and identified by the institutional review conducted by the Collaborative Brain Trust (CBT) in Spring 2016, and by the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges (ACCJC) in its Action Letter dated February 6, 2017.  

At the bargaining session immediately following Superintendent/President Walt Tribley’s ACCJC accreditation forum on February 10th, both parties acknowledged that MPC and MPCTA had negotiable items that needed immediate attention so that MPC could report progress to the ACCJC in March 2018.  At the forum, the MPC community was informed that the ACCJC’s placement of MPC on “probation” was a wake-up call that MPC had to promptly enact ACCJC’s recommendations to avoid a “show cause” status, which would place MPC’s accreditation in jeopardy.

The February 21st session commenced with a discussion of each party’s “priority” list of issues to address in light of the ACCJC letter.  After a significant caucus by MPCTA, and while MPC was willing to include MPCTA’s items on the “priority list,” it was determined that MPCTA was not willing to expedite negotiations on the issues identified by MPC.  The parties used the rest of the bargaining session to exchange proposals, and to set additional bargaining dates. 

Future Dates

Since October 2016, the District has consistently requested frequent and longer negotiation sessions to allow the parties enough time to negotiate a contract before the 2016-17 academic year is over.  The District made this request again on February 21st, but MPCTA refused to provide more than two dates in March, two dates in April, and one date in May 2017.  At the same time, MPCTA expressed its belief that there was no way for the parties to complete negotiations before the year is over.  On February 22nd, MPC issued a formal request to MPCTA for additional dates , in the hope that MPCTA will make greater efforts to find time for bargaining meetings.  

MPC and MPCTA have additional negotiation sessions scheduled on March 3rd and 31st, April 7th and 21st, and May 5th.