Click here to see past 1650 Reports

October 22, 2003

As most of the membership knows, on November 4, Dearborn voters will vote on two millage proposals: renewal of the College’s entire operating millage (2.5 mills for ten years) and a millage increase of 0.5 mill for five years to offset drastic reductions in State funding to HFCC. Securing these sources of funding is critical to HFCC’s continued operation and critical to maintaining our high-quality instruction, strong community involvement, and positive working conditions.

While HFCC is not unique in facing drastic cuts in State funding, the fact that it relies more heavily on State funding than other metropolitan community colleges makes our situation more dire. Additionally, HFCC’s local property tax funding is by far the lowest of any community college:

Local Property Tax Support (2001-02)
1.	Oakland Community College	$73,882,524
2.	Wayne County Community College	$58,011,039
3.	Washtenaw Community College	$35,407,097
4.	Macomb Community College	$33,613,182
5.	Schoolcraft Community College	$20,396,516
6.	Henry Ford Community College	$10,768,816

HFCC’s value to the community is clear. Several organizations have endorsed the two millage proposals: the UAW, Metro Detroit AFL-CIO, ACCESS, the American Arab Chamber of Commerce, The Dearborn Press and Guide, and The Dearborn Times Herald. Additionally, as President Mazzara indicated in his October 6 memo to the College community, Dr. Daniel Little, Chancellor of the University of Michigan-Dearborn, has personally advocated for passage of the proposals.

The following article, reproduced from the September 2003 Capitol Report issued by the MFT&SRP, illustrates how the College’s financial situation may become even more grave in the future and why solidifying and expanding this kind of support is essential.

FURTHER EDUCATION CUTS POSSIBLE

According to House Fiscal Agency Director Mitch Bean, the year-to-date revenues are down 1.7 percent, when the budget anticipated they would be up .3 percent. The means that revenues are 2 percent below estimates and the budget is therefore off by $380 million*, of which $100 million is school aid. The budget was built on consensus revenue forecasts set by the Department of Treasury and Senate and House Fiscal Agencies in May.

House Appropriations Committee Chair Representative Marc Shulman (R-West Bloomfield) has called for a mid-October emergency Consensus Revenue Estimating Conference to determine the size of the budget shortfall. This amount will likely come out of the bottom line of the state's next fiscal year, which begins October 1.

Governor Granholm is committed to holding education as her number one priority and to being able to protect the $6,700 per pupil foundation grant in the widely expected upcoming round of budget cuts, but she does not rule out cuts in other areas of education funding.

The shortfall in revenues for the school aid fund presents a bigger issue because it means a deficit for the current fiscal year and no surplus in 2003-2004. Options could include using cushion money from the 2003 - 2004 budget now to balance the 2002-2003 budget. Higher education and community college budgets are appropriated through the general fund, therefore, additional cuts in the budgets for community colleges and universities could result.

*(Michigan’s General Fund and School Fund revenue shortfalls now amount to $900 million)

Obviously, the difficult financial situation faced by the College, now and in the long term, makes passing the millage proposals critically important. Unfortunately, we face some big obstacles, including widespread economic uncertainty that may make voters less receptive to the proposals and a ballot virtually limited to HFCC issues, which may decrease the number of people who turn out to vote. Your support in following will help counter these negative influences.

Volunteers are needed to work the polls on election day, Tuesday, November 4, for 2-3 hour shifts, and Dearborn residents are asked to put lawn signs in their yards. If you can assist in any of these efforts, please call John McDonald’s office (x9666) or complete the forms distributed to your mailbox and return them to the Local 1650 office, A-201. Also please volunteer to help in the following activities: distribution of lawn signs, telephoning reminders to vote, and/or participating in the addressing bee on Wednesday, 10/29, 2-7 p.m. at Park Place Catering, 23400 Park, Dearborn. Clearly, with the stakes as high as they are in this election, your help is extremely important.

As of October 16, 2003, 66% of the Union membership had responded to the Union’s request for PAF contributions, donating a total of $11,851 to Local 1650’s Political Action Fund. Local 1650’s Executive Board has recommended that each teacher contribute $100 to our local PAF. Members were also asked to contribute $20 to the MFT & SRP political fund. The response so far is significantly lower than in the recent years when over 90% of the membership contributed. Given the importance of the renewed and enhanced operating millage, needed to offset drastic budget cuts and needed to ensure HFCC’s continued viability, and given the Local’s reduced membership, additional contributions are sorely needed.

How will your contributions be used? As in the past, Local 1650 operates two PAF funds. The first, a restricted fund, is used only for local millage/bond elections, Board of Trustees’ campaigns, and the campaigns of municipal and/or State Legislative candidates representing HFCC’s district. The Local uses the “unrestricted” fund to engage in political activity and to support candidates not so directly involved with HFCC but whose decisions definitely affect Local 1650’s ability to represent the interests of its members. Gubernatorial, State Supreme Court, Attorney General, and important out-state legislative races fall into this category. No Local 1650 PAF monies go to Federal races.

The Executive Board thanks those who have already contributed and thus supported Local 1650’s political efforts to protect their bargaining rights and secure the local and State funding necessary to operate HFCC, maintain instructional quality, and compensate its employees. Additional checks should be made out to HFCC-FT 1650 PAF ($100) and MFT&SRP COPE ($20) and forwarded to your Area Representative.

Please consider contributing to HFCC’s faculty/staff flower and gift fund. In extending the College community’s congratulations or sympathies during pivotal events in members’ lives and in honoring retirees at the annual breakfast, this fund helps build a sense of collegiality and improves morale. If you have not already done so, you can make out a check for $10 payable to Henry Ford Community College and give it to one of the HFCC Senators.

Campus Equity Week (October 27-31, 2003) seeks to highlight, on a local as well as a national scale, the plight of part-time/adjunct and other contingent faculty, a concern of many 1650 members and the College overall. Endorsed by the AFT as well as other higher education organizations, activities throughout the week spotlight higher education’s over-reliance on such faculty and agitate for fairer compensation, more equitable working conditions, and access to benefits such as affordable health insurance and retirement benefits, all of which will help secure quality instruction in colleges and universities nationwide. Local events will include meetings with key legislators in late October and early November to review community college funding with regard to appropriate compensation of adjuncts. Additionally, a study of State community college adjunct working conditions and staffing patterns, an initiative which Local 1650 has championed and which was supported in the past by the State House but not by the State Senate, will now be pursued through the Department of Labor.

If you are interested in learning more about the AFT’s stance on part-time/adjunct instructors and its recommendations for protecting faculty rights as well as academic quality and integrity, please see the booklet Standards of Good Practice in the Employment of Part-Time/Adjunct Faculty or go on line to http://www.aft.org/higher_ed/downloadable/Stand_Parttime.pdf.

Applications for the 2004 Union Plus Scholarship program are now available. To download an application, go to http://www.unionvoice.org/ct/9pafzSd1rpqH/award or send a postcard with your name, address, telephone number, and international union affiliation (AFT) to the following address:

Union Plus Education Foundation

c/o Union Privilege
P.O. Box 34800
Washington, DC 20043-4800

The deadline is January 31, 2004. Recipients' names for the 2004 program will be announced May 31. However, due to the high volume of applications, only winners will be notified. This year, 105 students representing 42 AFL-CIO unions were selected to receive $150,000 in scholarships. Funding for the Union Plus Scholarship program is provided through the Union Plus Education Foundation.

(Reproduced from Inside AFT for the week of September 29, 2003)

Local 1650 and The Center for the Study of Work at HFCC will co-sponsor an exhibit on the life of Albert Shanker in the ASCC Gallery from November 4 to November 26. A reception for College faculty will be held on November 20 from 2 to 3 p.m. in the small amphitheater at the ASCC. Dave Hecker, President of the MFT&SRP, and John McDonald, President of Local 1650, will speak at the reception on Shanker's prominence as a union leader. The exhibit “Albert Shanker: Labor’s Educator” tells the story of one of the greatest labor leaders in the 20th century. Considered canny, a maverick, and a tough negotiator, Shanker was also well respected and sought after for his wisdom in the development of public education, on civil rights, and on trade unionism. This exhibit traces the life of Albert Shanker who never stopped educating, never stopped organizing, and was committed to America’s public education system.

Currently the ASCC Gallery is featuring an exhibit entitled "Labor Day Parade." The exhibit is composed of photos taken in Detroit during Labor Day parades between 1987 and 2003 on Woodward Avenue by Anthony Bitonti. The exhibit will run until October 31 and is sponsored by the Center for the Study of Work at HFCC.

If you are committed to supporting U.S. unions and their members and would like to ensure that your consumer behavior supports the kinds of working conditions associated with unionized working environments here in the U.S., you should know about a new Web site that’s being developed. According to a September 25, 2003, news release issued by the Union Label & Service Trades Department, “Graduate students at the University of Massachusetts have teamed with the AFL-CIO to build an on-line database listing all goods and services produced by U.S. union members.” The Web site and database will enable users to identify union-made products, such as cars and clothing, as well as travel and entertainment-related commodities, such as hotels and restaurants. This new site is scheduled to be on line in early 2004 and will replace the older, more limited database currently at www.unionlabel.org/do_buy.asp.