MHCC Faculty Association Approves New Contract; Up for MHCC Board Vote

For 21 long months, the Mt. Hood Community College Faculty Association has been bargaining with the college administration to reach a new contract after the previous working contract expired in August 2022.

Finally, on Feb. 28, the full-time faculty members voted to approve a new contract that would increase their salaries and bring benefits up to par with those of other local community colleges. Exact details on the tentative deal are not yet available.

The bargaining process has been long and slow, at times seeming that no progress was being made between the parties. The tension from faculty members was on display during a small informational picketing effort made at the MHCC Gresham campus on Feb. 21. Instructors held signs saying they were “working without a contract” and handed out flyers noting some of the current issues they wanted resolved.

Photos by Kane Finders

To better understand the bargaining process and the work it took to reach a tentative contract, I spoke with Sara Williams, an MHCC math instructor and member of the faculty association bargaining team. She has been involved in many different bargaining processes for over 15 years and has seen how long and drawn out they can be. She said the point of the Feb. 21 picketing was to demonstrate that faculty were unified on this issue and to let students know that there was a problem. 

Williams noted some reasons the bargaining process took a staggering 21 months. It had been a long time since the faculty association opened the whole contract for discussion. Usually, when bargaining on a faculty contract, there are two paths to take, she explained: The group can decide only to discuss a specific section or topic of the contract and zero in on a few fundamental issues it wants to see changed. Or it can open the whole contract up for debate and renegotiate a large portion. This time the association took the latter option, which explains the lengthy bargaining process.

Another reason it took longer than anticipated was that “we were coming out of the pandemic, and a lot of things had been done on Zoom…I don’t think that was as effective as bargaining in person,” said Williams. She noted that the college administration declined to meet every week to discuss the contract, wishing to meet only every other week – and said it’s hard to get much done when you are working at half speed.

With little progress coming last autumn, the faculty association decided to request a mediator to come in and help with the process. The state sends a mediator to help a union or association negotiate fairly and ensure that both parties communicate and are reasonable in their discussions. In the end, she said, “There are a lot of compromises when you come to an agreement… but I feel like we got a fair contract.”

Finally, the two sides had their breakthrough.

“We had a mediation session two weeks ago that started at 9:30 in the morning, and by 3 a.m. (the next day), we had a tentative agreement,” said Williams. Faculty members on the bargaining team have spent an estimated 9,000 hours on this contract and were happy to see a tentative agreement made.

Following the successfully faculty vote, the next step in officially ratifying the contract comes on March 20, when the MHCC District Board of Education is set to vote on the deal.

Looking ahead now, Williams says that the college is in a strong position to retain and recruit faculty, compared to other local community colleges.

This contract also benefits students, she added. Students come to MHCC not for a beautiful campus or a prime location but rather because of the teaching environment and the high level of instruction from the professors, she said: “Students come here because of the learning experience…and I am happy that I think our contract is going to continue that for students.”