Chemeketa Community College leaders are asking a state mediator for help in talks with the college’s faculty as the sides remain far apart on pay raises. Instructors are seeking a 23.4% cost of living increase over the next three years, including 10.2% this year. Union leaders said wages during the current contract have climbed slower than inflation, meaning employees are struggling to pay expenses more than they were three years ago. The college most recently proposed a 12.5% pay increase over three years, starting with 4.75% this year. Another key issue is pay for  part-time instructors. Chemeketa pays part-time faculty 65% of what their full-time counterparts earn. The faculty union is pressing to raise that number to 85% over three years, while the college has proposed raising it to 68%. A majority of the college’s roughly 400 faculty are part-time. Chemeketa had about 12,600 students last year. The dispute comes as public labor negotiations, particularly in K-12 education, have become heated across Oregon in the past two years. Teachers in the Salem-Keizer School District nearly went on strike last spring, and Albany teachers reached an agreement after a multiweek strike in November. No community college employee union in Oregon has ever gone on strike, said Janet Gillman, state conciliator with the Employment Relations Board, which mediates labor disputes with public employees. College administrators filed for mediation Dec. 3, saying proposals on pay were too far apart to settle without outside help. Aaron Hunter, the college’s chief financial officer, said Chemeketa’s proposal would cost about $11.8 million over three years, while the union’s would be about $28.4 million. Hunter said the college is trying to balance the impact of inflation on faculty by being “very fair but judicious” in what they offer. “We don’t want to get in a position where we need to turn around and do potential budget reductions in the near future,” he said. The large cost gap between proposals drove administrators to seek mediation, said David Hallett, the college’s vice president of academic and student affairs, and a member of the bargaining team. “We felt we weren’t making progress and we basically had been trading the same language back and forth over the last few bargaining sessions,” Hallett said. Leaders of the Chemeketa Faculty Association said early negotiations have largely focused on non-monetary issues and said administrators’ decision to seek mediation will delay getting the contract settled. “Faculty were incensed and offended by the college’s economic counterproposal on November 15 and are even more offended by the college walking away from the bargaining table. It is insulting and disrespectful,” said Steve Wolfe, faculty union president, speaking last week to the college Board of Education. He said without the move to mediation, the college and union likely would have kept bargaining over winter break and continued to make progress. College instructors packed the college’s boardroom for the Dec. 11 meeting. About a dozen faculty and supporters urged the board to press college leaders to continue negotiating. They described their struggle to pay for basic expenses on part-time salaries. Starting pay for a full-time Chemeketa faculty is about $61,000 per year, according to the current salary schedule. A starting part-time instructor would be paid about $3,432 for teaching a typical four-credit class for a quarter, while an instructor at the top of the pay scale would earn $5,632. Part-time faculty are generally not allowed to teach more than 28 credits per year, effectively capping their annual pay at about $39,000. Amanda Knopf, union vice president, described her challenges juggling her job teaching English classes at Chemeketa alongside coaching softball at Linfield University and picking up classes at other colleges and writing programs around the region.  “What I want is for my colleagues and I to continue excelling in the careers we are passionate about and dedicated to – transforming lives and strengthening communities through quality education, services, and workforce training – while also being able to support ourselves and our families. What I want is for us to be compensated fairly and equitably for our work,” she said.  The faculty and college leaders began negotiating last January. The existing contract expired in June. The first mediation session is scheduled for Jan. 31. Mediation is the first step toward a strike, though both union and college leaders stressed they wanted to avoid that. By state law, a public employer and union must be in mediation for at least 15 days before one side can declare an impasse. The college has gone to mediation once before, in 2009. Contact reporter Rachel Alexander: [email protected] or 503-575-1241. A MOMENT MORE, PLEASE– If you found this story useful, consider subscribing to Salem Reporter if you don’t already. Work such as this, done by local professionals, depends on community support from subscribers. Please take a moment and sign up now – easy and secure: SUBSCRIBE. The post With a year of negotiations and no deal, Chemeketa tries new tack with faculty appeared first on Salem Reporter.