By Charles Loiacono     

Beware What You Wish For or Dumb, Dumber, Dumbest

           To recount Sean Fanelli’s decisions during the nine year history of the ELI/LINCC debacle confirms the truth about his motive. Fanelli wanted to experience the satisfaction of running a program unconstrained by a union contract. He wanted to be free to run it as a business—to make money by hiring non-union workers, paying low wages, imposing a long work day, hiring and firing at will, and answering to no one.

            The dream didn’t end there. If he were to succeed in this by simply pretending that the teaching of English as a Second Language was new, then he could use the same pretense to move other programs out of the college. Being an incrementalist, he thought to chip away at the union’s strength in little increments. That in the end he was forced to pretend that his only aim was to include LINCC “lecturers” in the AFA, only to switch gears at the eleventh hour and insist they belonged in the NCCFT, proves that desperation finally took hold of his ambition.

Dumb

            It was dumb of Fanelli not to realize that he would be challenged by the AFA when he moved classes out of the college into adult education. It was dumb of the Board of Trustees to renege on an agreement they had negotiated with the AFA, which solved the problem and saved the college money. It was dumb of Jack Ostling to write a memo that convinced the BOT to renege. It was just as dumb to show in detail that they could make more money with ELI in adult education. It was dumb of John Gross to write a consent

award that the AFA could not agree to after Marty Scheinman had mediated a solution.

Dumber

It was dumber to change the name of ELI to LINCC and pretend that it was a new program. It was dumber for John Gross to file a petition with PERB. That decision said that Fanelli’s dream was dead. ELI/LINCC had to be unionized. The hope was that once PERB ruled, the administration could then negotiated new terms and conditions of employment. That goal was admitted openly. It was the only reason for going to PERB. If this administration thought these teachers belonged in a union, they would have simply included them in the AFA or in the NCCFT instead of going to PERB. But that would have meant that they understood that the terms and conditions of the existing contract would apply to this new group. They hoped that the AFA would negotiate lesser terms for these classroom teachers if PERB declared them new. Fat chance!

Dumbest

By far the dumbest decision was to change horses at the last minute. To be sure, this administration knew that I was on to their game and knew where they hoped to go with this. It was the first step in realizing Fanelli’s dream. They soon understood that I and the AFA would never accept different terms and conditions for classroom teachers. They sensed that it would end badly if they tried to impose a new salary and a new set of working conditions for this new cadre.

This whole business had gone sour and had cost millions in legal fees and awards. But instead of accepting the obvious, they decided to try their hand at dealing with the NCCFT.

It cannot be that anyone has considered the end game. If the NCCFT appeals, the fight will go on for years—in for a penny, in for a pound. That means appeals at PERB and in the courts, and millions of dollars throw to the wind. If the NCCFT decides not to appeal, but to rather stand firm in order to protect the integrity of their contract, one of two things happens. One, they prevail and the “LINCC lecturers” become true full-timers with all the rights and privileges thereto. Their salary will increase substantially, they will be eligible for full fringe benefits including pension rights, and their work day will be cut to size. That possibility turns on its head Fanelli’s dream of being an unencumbered honcho. You would have to be unconscious not to understand that that was never part of his scheme.  

            The likelihood of the “lecturers” being accepted by the administration as true full-timers is slim. What then is the second possibility? Protracted negotiations will become the order of the day. It will go on and on. The lawyers will get rich. During the play-out, the relationship between the NCCFT and the administration will fester and become ugly. The college will suffer as it always suffers when the administration is unable to create harmonious relations.

            That’s why Fanelli’s last-ditch attempt to have his way was the dumbest decision of all. He and his lawyers never considered what would happen if they got their wish. Well, they got it! And now they have come full circle. In 2001, English as a Second Language courses were college courses taught by college professors. Those courses were moved out of the college into adult education

and called the English Language Institute. They hired unqualified instructors. The program foundered. The AFA objected. The BOT negotiated an agreement. The agreement was repulsed. ELI was replaced with ELI B. It failed. It was replaced by LINCC. An arbitration award declared that ELI violated the AFA contract. The college was fined $337,614. PERB ruled LINCC belonged in the NCCFT. Now English as a Second Language is back where it started in 2001. What was gained? Money! What was lost?  Education, credibility, reputation, and stability. As those were lost, so was the ability to lead with any effectiveness. And so, as the end of the circle meets with the beginning, things could not look worse.

This will end badly unless someone with some smarts emerges. That someone will not come from the Fanelli administration. They were too deeply immersed in all the machinations leading up to this imbroglio. I am cynical enough to see them thumbing their noses as they leave the campus.

            What if Fanelli did consider what would happen? What if he knew that he would be leaving the new college president a potential block-buster? No, that’s too cynical even for me.

            Wouldn’t it be ironic though if the someone with the smarts to see the solution to this ignited fuse is that same new college president. That would be poetic justice. To see the new college president take a divisive problem that he inherited and turn it around by joining forces with the unions to find a creative solution—no lawyers, no mediators, no arbitrators, just common sense, trust, and mutual respect to take the place of polemics and litigation—would be “a consummation devotedly to be wished.”