English 1 teaching associates could face pay cut

By Martha Martinez

English 1 lab teaching associates recently dodged a pay cut that would have decreased their semester pay about $700. The associates are only safe from the cut, however, for the remainder of the semester because next semester there might be a possibility of a pay cut, said Thomas Ebert, associate vice president for academic personnel.

A temporary solution was made between the California State University system and the United Auto Workers, the union that represents the associates, regarding their salaries, Ebert said.

The threat of a pay cut originated when the staff of academic personnel discovered the associates were getting paid extra for fractions of units of work they didn’t complete, Ebert said. Salaries, he said, are based on weighted teaching units that are measured on a weekly faculty effort. Each English 1 lab class amounts to 1.3 weighted teaching units, but the associates were being paid 1.5.

“I’m bound to pay 1.3 (weighted teaching units),” Ebert said. “That’s all they’re working.”

Now the associates will be paid for 1.5 units for the rest of the fall semester.

Negotiations will begin immediately in order to establish a reasonable salary for the associates, Ebert said.

The associates worked about five weeks into the semester before being given a contract to sign, said James Espinoza, an English 1 lab teaching associate.

Even though the contract stated the associates were going to be paid less, Espinoza said he felt he had no choice but to sign the contract. The contract, Espinoza said, needed to be signed immediately.

The due date was the next day. The contract said that if he didn’t sign, he would miss the payroll deadline, which would have meant no paycheck for the month.

“This is my job,” Espinoza said. “I hadn’t received a paycheck in a month and a half.”

Espinoza did notice the decreased salary and mentioned it to the English department, but the staff was unable to do anything about the salaries.

The associates then went to the UAW to request help in bargaining for a new contract agreement. No associates complained to academic personnel, Ebert said.

“That is how the process works from both sides,” Ebert said, referring to the associates skipping the academic personnel and going straight to their union.

The associates are graduate students who teach courses, critique papers and attend classes.

“We are working to pay our own tuition,” Espinoza said, emphasizing the importance of the money he and his colleagues earn.

Until a salary bargain is reached, the academic personnel will pay the associates for 1.5 units, as they had been in the past, Ebert said.

“My job is to follow the rules as they are given to me,” he said.