After hearing that the Orlo Vista area was devastated by Hurricane Irma, OESPA donated needed items, food, clothing, and personal hygiene products, to an OCPS school, Orlo Vista Elementary, to be distributed to families in that community.

Click here to read why a majority of CCV faculty have committed to voting YES for the right to negotiate for salaries and job security!

Please click here to download the current RVCCSSF Constitution.

While every grievance begins as a complaint, all complaints do not become grievances.  In order to know what complaints can be processed as grievances, you will need to refer to the Collective Bargaining Agreement between Sussex County Community College and the Sussex County Community College Professional Staff Federation.  (You can access the Agreement on this site under “Resources”.)

As you will see in Article 13 of the contract, a grievance can arise from a violation, misinterpretation, or misapplication of the Agreement or a violation of College policy affecting the terms and conditions of employment.

The purpose of the grievance procedure is to provide for the speedy, orderly and equitable resolution of disputes. Inherent in the grievance process is the remedy sought which must be identified in order to make the grievant whole.  In selecting an appropriate remedy, it is important to keep in mind that the purpose of the remedy is restoration not retribution.  The remedy should be consistent with the collective bargaining agreement in order to protect the integrity of the contract.

If you feel that the conditions for a grievance have been met, please do the following:

1. Carefully document all facts including dates and times pertaining to the grievance.

2. Contact Jan Jones.

Remember that there is a big difference between a gripe and a grievance.  A grievance is a formal challenge to the employer that the contract or College policy has not been followed.

Fortunately, most problems can be settled informally without filing paperwork.  But it is imperative that you contact your local leadership as soon as possible when you have reason to believe you have a grievance.  There are strict timelines for the filing process (which you will also find under the grievance article in the contract), and they start the minute the violation takes place.

A&R met with OLR and DRS on Friday 9/8/17 to discuss the impact of the recently released fingerprinting/background check policy.  There will be a follow-up meeting, but this is where we are as of now:

The Essex County College Adjunct Faculty Federation wants to inform you of the newest benefits offered by the American Federation of Teachers (AFT).

One of the benefits is Accidental Death and Dismemberment (AD&D) Insurance.

In the event of accidental death or dismemberment, the AFT will pay $5,000.00 to your designated beneficiary.  If the accident occurs on campus, the benefit doubles to $10,000.00.  There is NO additional cost to the member.  The only requirement is the completion and submission of the Designation of Beneficiary Form. 

Another AFT benefit is Child Identification Kits.  If a child up to 18 years of age is abducted or lost, the ID Kits will provide authorities with the child’s identifying characteristics for his/her recovery.  You can obtain the Kits at no cost.

If you are interested in either or both of these benefits, please contact John Smith or me.  We are both in Social Sciences and we have mailboxes there.  If you prefer to call or email us, our contact information is as follows:

Lynne P. Cummins, (973)856-0767, lynnepcummins@aol.com

John L Smith (973)856-1133, jlsmith119@yahoo.com

Just a note about negotiations.  We are still in the thick of it.  Hopefully, we will come to some reasonable resolution soon.

In unity,

Lynne Peterson Cummins

President

Essex County College Chapter 6370

United Adjunct Faculty NJ, Local 2222
 

DRS employees have been notified that they will be asked to consent to fingerprinting for the purpose of conducting background checks.  Federal IRS code was amended to require background checks on all DRS employees who access Federal Tax Information ("FTI") systems.  While the State/DRS must follow federal regulations, and the Union cannot amend or even contest federal requirements, the Union has filed an institutional grievance on behalf of DRS employees over the DRS Background Check Policy and Procedures (July 2017) (“DRS Policy”).

AFT raised their dues at their annual convention, the impact will be an increase of 11 cents per paycheck (roughly $3 per year).   This increase does not go to A&R, it is passed to AFT.   This increase will be reflected in your pay check dated September 29, 2017.  The increase may be offset by a reduction in A&R dues.  Based on the reduction in salaries (due to furlough days) through June 2018, some members may have a decrease in their A&R dues by roughly 20 to 30 cents per pay period.  So although you may see a decrease in the total dues amount deducted, the decrease will actually contain an increase to AFT. 

A&R is AFT Local 4200.  Although we have not raised our dues (in fact, they may be lower this year), we are required by the union's constitution to implement the dues increase approved by the national and state organizations, in this case, 11 cents per paycheck.  -9/1/17

We are working hard to make this site your go-to place for all union related material.

The information we will post includes (but is not limited to): meeting notices, events calendar, and AFT/NYSUT articles. We welcome your input, so please let Stacey Revette know if you would like to see anything additional. We will try our best to update this page in a timely fashion.