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After 30 years as its representative, The California Teachers Association/ Community College Association has been dumped by the faculty at PCC. Faculty voted by a 2 to 1 margin in September to replace CTA/CCA with an independent union, the Pasadena City College Faculty Association.There were a number of reasons why the faculty was dissatisfied with CTA and the local CCA.

“The big thing was, CTA, or the local, decided everyone should pay a fair share,” said Richard Beyer, psychologist, one of the organizers for the PCC Faculty Association.

“The statewide union voted to go fair share, which meant, I didn’t have to join to be represented but 1 percent of my salary was being taken, and I had no choice in the matter. You had to pay whether you liked it or not,” Beyer said.

CTA/CCA has been representing the teaching staff at PCCfor many year,s but, as Nick Colon, instructor said, “What has the union done for us lately?”

Faculty members were asking ” What where they getting for their money?” Beyer said. “If we are getting good value for our money, then OK. It felt like I was throwing money in the Mirror Pools.”

Faculty members wanted better value for their money and CTA/CCA was not providing that value, according to some instructors. High dues also influenced their vote to make a change.

The new union, PCC Faculty Association, is now in the process of taking control from CTA.

It has begun writing bylaws and checking with other experts, in order to make the transition as smooth as possible. “We know there will be growing pains and glitches. But we don’t expect many problems, because the local staff has been handling the workload,” Beyer explained.

Santa Monica College, and Santa Rosa College have been independent from CTA since about 1975, and there have been no problems Beyer has heard of since these colleges joined with the American Federation of Teachers. PCC is considering joining the AFT, but first must complete the transition process.

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