Mike Deak, Courier-News
BRANCHBURG – Negotiations between the administration and the teachers union at Raritan Valley Community College are headed to mediation after talks failed to reach an agreement on a new contract.
The faculty has been working without a contract since July. The previous contract between the teachers and the college was a one-year pact that was approved in January 2015 and was retroactive to July 2014
That contract settlement was reached after a year of negotiations.
The union held a rally Tuesday afternoon on the campus to kick off its campaign for a new contract. The union is also planning to attend the Feb. 16 meeting of the college’s board of trustees.
The union is charging that the college is “in the black” but the faculty’s take-home pay is decreasing because of increasing contributions toward the cost of benefits.
[…]“Raritan Valley Community College is operating in the black but is unwilling to share it with the people who are working here,” said Maria DeFilippis, president of the union who is on leave this semester.
Though Somerset and Hunterdon are among the 10 wealthiest counties in the United States, the salaries at Raritan Valley lag behind neighboring community colleges, she said.
Raritan Valley salaries would have to rise 22 percent to match those at Middlesex County Community College, DeFilipps said.
She also said that the five vice presidents at Raritan Valley, who make a total of $768,000, received higher raises last year than the faculty members.
“That’s contemptible,” she said.
Bick Truett, the union vice president, said the union is asking either for a decrease in benefit contributions or a pay increase in light of the college’s $1.2 million surplus.
“We have seen our take-home pay shrink every year since 2011,” Truett said.
Andrea Vaccaro, an English as a Second Language teacher, said the administration is “dissing” the teachers.
“What are we supposed to tell our students? Settle for less?” she said.
Sociology professor Barbara Seater said the negotiations should be a lesson for students.
“If they’re treating us badly, how are they going to treat you?” Seater said.
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