Teacher threatens new faculty union with suit

A battle is brewing for PCC’s new faculty union.The Pasadena City College Faculty Association may face a lawsuit from one of its members if it does not change and explain why it has kept the 1 percent union dues it promised to lower.

Richard McKee, an instructor in the natural sciences division, printed and distributed a memo stating he would sue, not for money but to protect the interests of the faculty.

“No documents were presented to the faculty as to why ‘fair share’ should be 1 percent instead of the promised 0.6 percent,” said McKee.

“We had a new union in name only, and the old news, the lies, became all too relevant. Imposing the 1 percent dues was the first clear evidence,” said McKee.

In a memo McKee addressed to President Paulette Perfumo, Richard Beyer and Suzanne Anderson, co-chairs of the union, on Wednesday he claims the PCCFA has no authority to deduct fees.

He contacted Perfumo for public records about the PCCFA’s certification as the faculty’s collective bargaining representative.

In the records the union only provided one document – signed by Anderson – informing the Pasadena Area Community College District of the union’s “assumption and implementation of its obligations as exclusive representative of PCC’s certified bargaining unit.”

The district did not receive a notice from the PCCFA to the deduct fair share fee from the pay of the non-union faculty.
McKee put the memo that he distributed on Tuesday together over the weekend.

“I have not read this memo, and we need time to reply to it,” said Beyer, co-chairman of the faculty.

Beyer gave no further comment due to past problems he claimed with the Courier’s reporting.

A meeting was held on Tuesday with some of the chemistry instructors and seven faculty members of the union board about issues they had raised.

“It was a very fertile and productive meeting,” said Roger Marheine, a member of the union. “We were surprised and disappointed that we got this memo.”

“This memo was obviously written and distributed before we could even meet with them,” Marheine explained. “At the least it’s a disingenuous gesture.”

According to Marheine this will not be the first time McKee has filed litigation against a union.

“McKee’s litigation has lost over the last three years against the prior CTA union and apparently he is continuing to file litigation against the new independent faculty union,” said Marheine.

McKee filed a court order against the local CTA asking for them to produce an accurate legal statement called a Hudson Notice that shows the union’s financial plans and an audit showing non-chargeable and chargeable expenses.

During the first litigation the court agreed with McKee and ordered the union to produce a new Hudson Notice. An appeal was filed due to the CTA ignoring the court’s order for the Hudson Notice after McKee filed a Writ of Mandate.

According to McKee the union, by law, is supposed to provide a Hudson Notice and an audit and now the PCCFA has sent no Hudson Notice and no flyers saying what it intends to do.

PCC faculty chose to end a 30-year relationship with the California Teachers Association (CTA) in hopes to get “good value for [their] money,” said Beyer in a past interview.

CTA representatives came to Pasadena on Aug. 30 to defend its position as union for the faculty.

Though the CTA took a stand, the faculty sought new alternatives for a union, voting the CTA out by a 2 to 1 margin in a September election.

McKee sent over 40 emails to Beyer, which went unanswered. Other faculty members also have tried to contact the co-chairman
Robert Lanyi, English instructor, forwarded an email to all of the faculty at PCC to show his five attempts to get a response from Anderson, president of the PCCFA, in why there was a mandatory deduction of 1 percent from the salary.

Lanyi wanted to question Anderson’s legal foundation for maintaining the 1 percent salary deduction for all faculty. “Wasn’t lower deductions part of the reason for our severing ties?”, asked Lanyi.

Lanyi wrote in an email, “Of all the lawyers in Southern California, Suzanne has nepotistically chosen her own brother to be in the new union’s pay. Apparently the legal advice regarding the taking and disposing of our money that she may have had or might be having from her brother is not for our having.”

McKee said that an attorney is lined up if the lawsuit goes to court.

“No one is benefited from litigation but if it’s the only alternative what’s really left,” said McKee.