Exposing the Full-Blown Exploitation of Part-Timers

Thank you for mentioning the plight of community college part-time faculty (“Payoffs, Drawbacks for ‘Full-Time’ Part-Timers,” Aug. 9).

Most part-time faculty don’t have phones or offices, paid office hours, job security or medical benefits. Part-timers handle 40% of the total teaching loads at the community colleges, and part-timers (28,000) outnumber full-timers (16,700).

It’s unfair to part-time faculty and students for community colleges to balance their budgets on the backs of part-timers. SB877 would help by establishing a permanent state budget category for creating more full-time faculty positions.

We also sponsored legislation this year (AB301) that would provide college district incentives to pay for paid office hours for part-timers. Last year, the governor signed our sponsored bill to provide district incentives to pay for part-time faculty health benefits.

PATRICK McCALLUM

Executive Director

Faculty Assn. of California

Community Colleges Inc.

Sacramento

*

A person who works close to or beyond a normal full-time schedule is giving his or her employer all the benefits of a full-time employee. No amount of double-talk or weasel words can change that fact. In exchange for the employee’s full-time work obligations, the employer pays less in salary and benefits. Sugarcoating a poison pill doesn’t make it any less lethal.

Employment is either full time or part time, temporary or permanent. Some recent employer-oriented innovations have been privatization, contracting and working in lieu of or to earn welfare-type payments.

Please make no mistake about it. The worker does not benefit from any of these schemes. No amount of verbal hocus-pocus can change the bottom-line result.

BETTY ROME

Culver City