A new four-year contract at Mount Hood Community College (MHCC) raises pay 18-21% for about 150 faculty members represented by the MHCC Faculty Association. And that’s not counting a 6% pay increase that offsets a shift to workers paying 6% of their salary to the Oregon Public Employees Retirement System (PERS); up to now, the college had paid both the employer and employee retirement contribution.
Signed March 20, the agreement comes after nearly two years at the bargaining table and was ratified with overwhelming support of union members, said union bargaining team chair Sara Williams.
The contract adds a new clause requiring the college to provide mental health services, health insurance, and free access to the campus gym and swimming pool for faculty members if they’re affected by an act of school violence, like a shooting; the benefits go to their survivors if faculty members are killed on the job. Williams says she doesn’t know of any other college faculty contract with similar offerings.
Under the agreement, workers received a 6% pay bump retroactive to Aug. 31, 2022, and a 5.5% raise when the contract was signed. They will receive a 3.5% raise for the 2024-25 school year and a 2% to 5% raise for the 2025-26 year, depending on the regional inflation rate.
The contract also reduced by a third the disparity in pay between teaching lectures versus teaching labs, which are paid less.
The union agreed to give administrators full control to decide whether to rehire a position when a faculty member leaves, Williams said. However, members retained some protections, including temporary incentive pay if their workload increases because the college chooses not to hire a replacement in their department.
It was the first time in 10 years the union and the college administration agreed to a full opener, meaning they would bargain every clause of the contract instead of a select few, instead of a rollover contract, where only the economic clauses open.
