Dear Faculty,
Welcome to the 2022-2023 school year! My name is Diana Valladares and I thank you for the opportunity to serve as your President. Above this letter, you will see the names of your RHCFA executive team. I want to give a BIG shout out to all of them and thank them for joining me on this journey. We are excited to advocate for you and look forward to engaging with you throughout the year.
Recently, our RHCFA negotiations team worked very hard, putting in countless hours, to secure some great benefits for all of us. To highlight our most recent accomplishment, the RHCFA negotiations team just secured the following items for our 2022-2025 collective bargaining agreement (CBA):
As you discover the great benefits negotiated for both part- and full-time faculty, I hope you realize the importance of RHCFA membership. The work of advocating for members never ends. We will face further challenges as instructional delivery models continue to evolve in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, we will continue to meet these challenges together. To do that, we encourage you to sign up as a member of the Rio Hondo College Faculty Association.
Please join us at our RHCFA meetings held the third Thursday of the month on the following dates for 2022-2023:
Lunch will be provided. The meeting will also be livestreamed for those who cannot make it in person. This is a great way to get to know your colleagues and your RHCFA representatives, your contract rights, and membership benefits.
RHCFA membership includes an alliance with CTA (California Teachers Association), NEA (National Education Association), and CCA (Community College Association). Scan the QR code for more benefits information.
Thank you for joining with us and have a great 2022-2023 academic year!
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Diana Valladares
Viviana Villanueva
Jeannie Liu
Marie Eckstrom
Raquel Flores-Olsen
Grant Tovmasian
Martha Carreon
Connie Isais
Claudia Rivas
Rudy Rios
Marie Eckstrom
Dorali Pichardo-Diaz
Rudy Rios
Eric Kaljumägi
The Rio Hondo College Faculty Association is comprised of over 550 full-time and part-time faculty members. About 60% of the members are part-time faculty, ranging from those who teach several classes per term in Communications to hourly instructors who work only a single weekend day teaching a Public Safety class. Since we are involved with higher education, we are part of the Community College Association (CCA), a group representing about ten thousand college professors in California. In turn, CCA is part of the California Teachers Association (CTA) who serves about three hundred thousand educational professionals in the state. We are also part of the National Education Association (NEA) who represents three million members in the country.
The Rio Hondo College Faculty Association is an “agency-fee, wall-to-wall union.” This means that all faculty, both full- and part-time, who work at the college pay dues to the Association, whether they are members or not. Non-members can obtain a percentage of their yearly dues returned by completing the paperwork sent to them by CTA in the fall. Beyond this, there are no advantages to not being a member. There are, however, many benefits to being a member as described below.
Members are able to vote in officer elections and for ratification of negotiated agreements, receive benefits such as promotional items and meals at meetings, can run for Association offices, may attend Community College Association conferences, and have greater levels of paid representation in arbitrations with the District.
Since membership in RHCFA also confers membership in the California Teachers Association and National Education Association, members receive a whole slew of additional benefits which include the following:
The majority of your dues go to CTA who use the funds for membership benefits (which can be accessed here), advocacy, scholarships, and other purposes related to education. Some of your dues go to CCA and NEA who also provide services and benefits to faculty (NEA benefit information can be found here). A small portion of your dues are retained locally. Note that all faculty at Rio Hondo College pay the same dues, regardless of being a member or not. There is little benefit in not being a member. If you are unsure of your status or want to join, please contact us.
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