WEA members at Bellevue College fight for faculty pay raises
Support pay raises for Bellevue College faculty!
K-12 teachers and education support professionals aren't the only ones fighting for professional salaries -- fair pay is a top bargaining goal for WEA's higher education members as well.
Faculty members at Bellevue College are calling on their college president and board of trustees to negotiate competitive pay raises. Community and technical college faculty won the right to bargain local salary increases in the 2018 legislative session.
“The money is available to provide salary increases now,” said Sue Nightingale, president of the Bellevue College Association of Higher Education, the faculty union. “We are worth it. Faculty turnover is already far higher than it should be, and without competitive, professional pay, we will continue to lose great instructors to other jobs or other institutions.”
The Washington Legislature increased education funding by billions of dollars because of the Supreme Court’s McCleary decision. As part of the McCleary funding package, Bellevue College received an additional $4 million related to the college’s Running Start program, which serves high school students. Yet the college administration’s latest salary offer to faculty would only invest $500,000 of that additional funding in pay increases – one-eighth of the available money.
Teachers in dozens of K-12 school districts have negotiated significant, double-digit percentage pay raises this year. The top pay for teachers in the Bellevue School District, for example, is now more than $111,000. By comparison, the average pay for full-time faculty at Bellevue College is $67,374, and the highest salary available this year without a negotiated increase will be only $89,400. Adjunct faculty, who teach about 65 percent of courses at the college, also are severely underpaid in comparison to K-12 educators.
“President Jerry Weber and the Board of Trustees should be showing leadership and quickly resolving our bargain with a contract that prioritizes faculty, rather than attempting to divert funds intended for our salaries to other priorities,” Nightingale said.
Nightingale said union and administration negotiators remain far apart, and the college’s bargaining team has requested mediation. Negotiations were scheduled to resume Oct. 5, but have been delayed because of the request for mediation.
