Monday marked the beginning of a three-day strike for faculty at Green River College.

The United Faculty board voted unanimously last Friday to strike. Union members authorized the strike after college administrators announced 11 programs facing elimination.

Administrators said the cuts are necessary due to a $4.5 million operating budget gap, but faculty members disagree with the claim.

While not all faculty members chose to participate in the strike, more than a hundred picketed outside of the main campus in Auburn, satellite campuses at Kent Station in Enumclaw, and at the intersection of Auburn Way North and 15th Street Northeast.

The union called on the administration to end the proposed elimination of the affected programs – business technology evening courses at the Kent Station campus, fingerprinting certification, design drafting, drama, Montessori track of Early Childhood Education, parent-child education, German, French, geography, occupational therapy assistant and study skills.

“This strike could end within the hour if RIF (reduction-in-force) notices are withdrawn,” Jaeney Hoene, the United Faculty union president, said during a press conference on Monday, reading from a letter she sent Green River president Eileen Ely. “We will end it ourselves after Wednesday in the interest of our students for whom graduation draws near.… Our concern for them will bring us back, but we will be far from done protesting your unfair labor practices when we return if they do not cease.”

Union leaders have asked the administration to work with faculty to find ways to close the budget gap.

“Whatever budget challenges this colleges faces they may be met together through authentic transparency and collaboration and without the permanent damage created by program cuts,” Hoene said, quoting her letter. “There is no crisis at Green River College except that which has allowed you to threaten employees with unemployment when they dare to challenge your policies.”

The college’s Board of Trustees voted 4-0 in an emergency meeting on Monday to seek court ordered injunction to end the strike. Trustee Tim Clark was at the meeting, while chair Pete Lewis, co-chair Claudia Kauffman and Trustee Sharonne Navas, took part by phone. Trustee Linda Cowan did not participate in the meeting.

Catherine Ushka, the college’s acting public information officer, said on Monday afternoon, she did not know when the injunction would be filed.

“In this case, the strike may well be over when it is ruled, but it is our due diligence to make sure we are doing whatever we can to make sure classes stay in session,” she said.

Green River students and representatives from other labor unions, joined faculty on the picket lines.

“Your fight is our fight, and we will not stand down until Green River is a college we can be proud of again,” Lynne Dodson, secretary/treasurer of the Washington State Labor Council, said during Monday’s press conference.

It is unusual for college faculty to strike, said Karen Strickland, president of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) Washington – a labor union representing community and technical college faculty. Green River faculty last went on strike in the 1970s.

Green River’s United Faculty is a local chapter of AFT Washington, which is supporting its members at Green River throughout the strike, Strickland said.

“Other presidents are not destroying the colleges they lead even though they are dealing with similar circumstances,” Strickland said during the press conference. “There is something wrong with this picture the decisions made by this president are egregious and warrant investigation.

The announcement of the potential cuts added to growing discontent on campus. Faculty and students have expressed concerns about the college leadership’s management of funding and lack of communication and interaction with campus constituents.

Since 2013, the union has presented the college’s Board of Trustees with three Votes of No Confidence in President Eileen Ely – the most recent at a board meeting on May 19 – as well as a vote of No Confidence in the board. In recent week’s students and faculty have organized rallies and walkouts and packed board meetings, asking for Ely’s resignation and an end to the proposed cuts.

Necessary cuts or retaliation?

Green River College faculty members say proposed cuts to 11 programs are not financially necessary but an intimidation tactic.

The college sent a letter on May 11 from Green River President Eileen Ely to faculty in the affected programs – business technology evening courses at the Kent Station campus, fingerprinting certification, design drafting, drama, Montessori track of Early Childhood Education, parent-child education, German, French, geography, occupation therapy assistant and study skills.

College officials say the cuts are needed to help close up to a $4.5 million operating budget deficit. The proposed cuts would save the college $1.2 million, Green River spokeswoman Allison Friedly said. Additional cuts could be made in student services and institutional support.

But, the financial situation at Green River is not as dire as the administration claims and does not warrant program cuts, said Jaeney Hoene, president of the college’s faculty union, United Faculty,

“The claim we are experiencing financial hardship is simply one that is not true,” Hoene said.

Hoene acknowledges the college is facing a decrease in state funding because of a change in the State Board for Community and Technical Colleges’ allocation model — which the college says amounts to $1.5 million — and a decline in domestic student enrollment.

“I don’t think any of those challenges creates a crisis that merits wiping out programs and firing people,” she said.

The college could use some of its reserve funding to make up the deficit and still carry a healthy reserve budget, Hoene said.

“Why would they do this, cause so much grief, so much turmoil, when they have the ability to solve this problem?” Hoene said. “Why aren’t they using that option?”

The college maintains a reserve fund of 10-percent of the total budget, which is mandated by the Board of Trustees, Friedly said.

“We can’t touch that money (without board approval),” Friedly said. “At this point, we have no plans to go to the board to do that.”

Faculty members said they believe the proposed cuts are retaliation meant to scare faculty for speaking out and questioning the college’s administration, Hoene said.

During the past few years faculty have brought two unfair labor practice complaints against the college, presented two Votes of No Confidence against Ely and one against the Board of Trustees, and held numerous rallies, protests and walk outs. A third Vote of No Confidence against Ely is in the works, Hoene said.

“It is an intimidation tactic showing us who is boss,” Hoene said of the proposed cuts. “If you continue to act out, bad things will happen to the faculty.”

Friedly disputes the faculty’s claims and reiterates the need to address the college’s financial situation.

“This an opportunity to right-size the college,” she said. “We grew a lot with the recession.”

The proposed cuts hurt students who are innocent by-standers trying to get an education, Hoene said.

“It is really disturbing to realize they (administrators) are willing to hurt the students in the programs in order to accomplish that goal in silencing the faculty,” she said.

Last week, faculty union members voted to give United Faculty authorization to strike. The union has not decided if there will be a strike, Hoene said, but is considering it.

“Nobody relishes the idea of striking,” she said. “The reality of it is it is a very hard thing and very upsetting to everybody, staff and students.”

Faculty want more information on program cuts

If the 11 programs are eliminated, five tenured faculty, one tenured-track faculty member and a program director could be affected. If their programs are cut, faculty members could teach other courses at the college, Friedly said.

Faculty members have until June 10 to submit suggestions to save the programs.

“They can either reduce their budgets or build enrollment, depending what the issue is with each program,” Friedly said.

Per faculty contract, any time positions could be eliminated, there is a 30-day comment period to make recommendations.

Faculty members will try to find ways to save their programs, but they have not been given much information to work with, Hoene said.

The letter from Ely did not give specific reasons each program was on the list but only stated that programs were chosen “based on a number of factors that may include, but are not limited to, reduction of program demand, declined enrollments, low entry job wages, job demand rate, number of students impacted and impact on ability to complete.”

Leslie Kessler, chair of the college’s Instructional Council, said faculty were caught off guard by the programs on the list and don’t understand why the administration chose those programs.

“It is also very frustrating to not have access to the data to figure out why,” Kessler said.

Kessler, who is also division chair of the Early Childhood Education, went through the process last spring, when parent-child education was one of four programs slated for elimination. The program was one of two spared, after Kessler restructured it, but it is back on the chopping block this year.

The Instructional Council has offered to work with administration to find ways to streamline programs, Kessler said.

“This needs to be collaborative, not something that is given to us in an email,” she said.

AFT supports Green River faculty

Members of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) Washington, a labor union that represents community and technical colleges faculty, hosted a solidarity event at Renton Technical College last Saturday. Green River’s United Faculty is a local chapter of AFT Washington.

Although the event focused on racial equity and justice, participants held a small rally to support their Green River colleagues. Several students and Green River faculty attended the solidarity event.

Karen Strickland, who has served as AFT Washington president for the past three years, said she has never seen the level of discontent in a college administration that now exists at Green River.

“There are always times when the faculty may be disgruntled with their administrators, and on occasion, they will do a Vote of No Confidence…” she said. “I have never seen multiple Votes of No Confidence. I have never seen three years of sustained and increasing efforts to be heard and to have collective, collaborative problem solving happen. This is an extraordinary situation. It is way beyond the kinds of issues that faculty are usually needing to advocate for in their colleges.”

AFT is working with faculty members at Green River and will provide support in any way it can, Strickland said.

“We are following the lead of the faculty on the ground,” she said. “We will advise and assist as needed.”