The Management Association (MA) at the January Board of Trustees meeting announced that the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 721 submitted the MA’s intent to unionize to the Public Employee Relations Board (PERB).
“SEIU Local 721’s ability to bargain effectively for our members coupled with our dedication to empowering all Americans is what makes our union a growing and formidable political force locally, statewide and nationally,” SEIU 721’s website said. “We recognize our value. We understand the direct correlation between effective public services and a strong public sector workforce. We know that America works because we do.”
Local SEIU 721 represents over 95,000 workers as the largest public sector union in Southern California representing workers in law enforcement, libraries, hospitals, court workers, sanitation, and several other related industries, according to the SEIU website.
Before working to become a part of SEIU 721 the MA was officially and will continue to be a meet and confer unit until they officially unionize with PERB and the college district. Unlike unions, meet and confer units do not have a lot of bargaining power when it comes to negotiating salaries, labor conditions, and other rules that are often absent without union protections, according to MA president Mat Camara.
“We got a lot of feedback from our Association members, so we spent several months really taking a hard look at if this is something we wanted to do before we actually decided to move forward,” Camara said. “The process to move forward was fairly simple, we just let SEIU [721] that we wanted to move forward with them.”
Once the MA had signaled their intent to SEIU 721, they had each manager sign a union card that affirmed their interest in being represented by the union. A lawyer then filed with PERB and notified the PCC school district that the MA is moving forward with unionization efforts, according to Camara.
The MA began these unionization efforts after the Board of Trustees in early 2023 pulled their Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) which was one of a few employment agreements the MA has with the college. PCC spokesperson Alex Boekelheide did not comment on why the MOU was pulled or what it entailed.
The others were a one time $3,000 Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) paid to all active members of the MA in March 2023 and a continuation of the meet and confer unit until the MA officially unionizes in the future, according to Camara.
Several of the steps taken by the MA at PCC included holding several listening sessions, research, and internal deliberations before bringing this effort to the public and PERB, according to an announcement made during the MA’s board report at the January Board of Trustees meeting.
By unionizing with SEIU 721, the MA, like other shared governance groups on campus, will have a proper bargaining unit with the Pasadena Area Community College District (PACCD) which allows the MA to negotiate contracts and become a single bargaining unit.
Only 52 out of the 81 members of the MA are set to be represented by the union because Academic Deans are not qualified to be a part of the union and “there were a few job classifications that were deemed confidential so they could not join the union,” according to Camara in a later email.
“With this effort, I think we put forth 52 positions to join SEIU, so it doesn’t include every management position on campus,” Camara said.
Several aspects of the deal to unionize and bring local SEIU 721 to PCC is still being worked out between the MA and the school district, so a timeline on when the MA will be officially unionized is still to be determined.
Mitch Gaby contributed to reporting.
