Instructors at Cerritos College will have to make some important decisions regarding their futures in the upcoming months.

According to various sources, their salaries over the last five to six years, have gone from being the eighth highest out of the 108 community colleges in California to now being ranked No. 20.

The Salary Committee, which negotiates the amount of pay increases the faculty receives each year, is currently in negotiations with the school’s administration to bring faculty salaries back up to a higher state ranking.

At the present time, however, the two sides are at an impasse.

The faculty has been offered an increase of four percent, which the salary committee feels is substantially less than what it is seeking.

On Tuesday, Salary Committee chairman, David Fabish, presented the administration’s offer to interested faculty for their review – approximately 75 out of 290 fulltime instructors showed up.

Fabish said, “We have some of the finest faculty in the state.

“You deserve a raise,” he told them. “This is how you are appreciated.”

He feels that in recent years the school has had the financial ability to give its faculty substantial raises, but has not done so.

School president, Dr. Jane Harmon said she comes from the faculty ranks, and she hopes that an agreement can be reached that will make everybody happy.

She feels that the offer made is one in which faculty can receive a raise and at the same time keep enough funds in the pot to pay for campus programs as well as any emergency situation that might arise.

Next Tuesday, Fabish will go back to the bargaining table to inform the administration as to whether the faculty has decided to accept its offer or not.

.In the past, when Cerritos faculty enjoyed one of the top salaries in the state, everything was good, and there was no need to belong to a union.

More and more, however,faculty members are signing up with union representatives.

Film professor, Robert Campolo said, “I’m really behind it . . . I know a lot of people are skeptical about unions, but as far as I’m concerned . . . workers who work under the union really benefit a lot.

“Without the union the Board of Trustees or the administration can do anything they want without any outside arbitration against it.”

In order to unionize, 50 percent plus one of the faculty on campus must sign up with a particular union.

For the last few months, the American Federation of Teacher’s union has been on campus garnering a lot of interest in unionizing among the faculty, and AFT representative, Linda Cushing says it is very close to reaching that number.

However, in the last three weeks the California Teacher’s Association union, which according to representative, Lisa Adams had a strong presence on the Cerritos campus eight years ago, and has continued to maintain a low profile is now trying to raise that profile as it is attempting to garner support for its union.

There are mixed feelings among faculty about the CTA’s emergence.

There are those who are fully behind the AFT, and feel that the progress it has been making is going to be hampered by another union vying for the support of the same faculty, then there are those who feel that the faculty now has a choice.

In fact, according to Adams, as well as Fabish, it was faculty members who initially called the CTA and asked it to come on campus and force an election, rather than just one union coming in without opposition.

To force an election, one union has to have gained 30 percent of the faculty vote by the time the other union has reached the 50 percent plus one mandatory for unionization.

Fabish is hoping the faculty does not accept the administration’s offer because then a greater ground swell of support for unionization will develop..

It would be a bargaining chip he could use the next time the two sides meet.

The whole thing is expected to come to a head in February, when the faculty will be voting on whether to unionize or not.