PAGE 2 | March 1, 2019 | NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
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...Clark faculty press for pay parity with K-12 teachers
From Page 1
Full-time professors there make
$53,000 to $75,000 a year for
year-round work, and went
without even cost-of-living in-
creases for six years in a row.
Meanwhile, at nearby K-12
school districts, school teachers
with an equivalent masters de-
gree make $93,000 to $97,000
after a recent pay bump.
“The cost of living has in-
creased so much in Vancouver
and Portland in the last few
years, and our salaries have not
caught up at all,” said commu-
nications instructor Suzanne
Southerland.
Clark College music teacher
Don Appert, head of his depart-
ment, says he’s never had more
than a 3 percent raise in over 20
years. And nursing professor
Lisa Aepfelbacher says gradu-
ates of her nursing program will
make more their first year of
work nursing than the instruc-
tors who taught them.
In this year’s salary negotia-
tions, Clark administrators be-
gan by offering just a cost-of-
living increase. Union president
Kim Sullivan said that
amounted to bad faith: What’s
the use of bargaining as a union
if the college is only offering
what it’s already mandated by
state law to give? At a Feb. 13
bargaining session, the college
increased its offer to 1 percent
above the state’s cost-of-living
raise.
But Clark administration is
also asking departments to pre-
pare for budget cuts of up to 5
percent, citing declining enroll-
ment and the state revenue that’s
tied to enrollment. Several years
ago, budget cuts led Clark to
eliminate whole programs, in-
cluding French and German,
paralegal training, and medical
radiology.
In an emailed statement, a
spokesperson for Clark College
said the school — in partnership
with the State Board for Com-
munity and Technical Colleges
— is asking the Washington
Legislature to fund a 12 percent
increase in employee salaries
over the next four years.
Until salary negotiations are
settled, the union is asking
members to wear their red “pay
equity” t-shirts every Wednes-
day.
“We hope they don’t make us
strike,” Southerland said.