“People saw the importance of having their union protect them because the administration is not going to.”

—United Faculty President Christie Diep

Christie Diep

In late December, United Faculty of North Orange County Community College District (UF) won an Unfair Labor Practice case against the North Orange County Community College District (NOCCCD). UF proved that the district violated the Educational Employment Relations Act (EERA) by retaliating against UF’s lead negotiator and by interfering with EERA-protected rights.

The lead negotiator, a tenured professor, endured more than two years of retaliation due to frivolous claims made by the district.

A viral video from April 2021 set the wheels of this case in motion: Another professor, who is Muslim, of Middle Eastern descent and who identifies as LGBTQ+, assigned students to take a position on an issue and defend that position when questioned by the professor. One student chose the topic of policing and chose the pro-policing stance, which left the professor to take the opposite view. In the clip, the student asserts that police officers are heroes; the professor responds by saying, among other things, that modern policing has its roots in groups who tracked down runaway enslaved persons in the South. The professor, along with other faculty of Middle Eastern descent, female faculty, LGBTQ+ faculty, and UF leaders were harassed and threatened after the video went viral on local and national news and social media platforms.

“UF’s lead negotiator and I received disgusting voicemails and emails from all over the country,” says Christie Diep, president of the 550-member UF. “The district did basically nothing. It was so utterly disappointing for faculty, and it had a chilling effect in the classroom.”

Diep says, “People saw the importance of having their union protect them because the administration is not going to.”

The UF lead negotiator attended several subsequent faculty senate and other meetings where district administrators were present. The UF lead negotiator, other faculty and students called out the district for not responding appropriately to protect academic freedom, employee dignity and workplace safety, especially for faculty of color and LGBTQ+ faculty. Faculty and students called on administrators to act. They described the administration culture using words such as “white privilege,” “white fragility” and “toxic masculinity.”

The UF lead negotiator also addressed the contentious issue of NOCCCD’s predominately male administrators determining when the predominately female faculty should return to in-person teaching in the midst of the Covid pandemic.

During a bargaining session between UF and the district in October 2021, where in-person instruction was discussed again, a male administrator who had been present at the other meetings alleged the lead negotiator’s comments were discriminatory. The next month, this administrator filed a formal complaint against the lead negotiator with accusations of unprofessional conduct, gender discrimination against the male administrators and creation of a hostile work environment. The district began an investigation and unlawfully directed the lead negotiator not to discuss the district’s complaint or the investigation with anyone.

CTA legal counsel sent a letter to NOCCCD in February 2022 expressing concern that the district was engaging in unlawful retaliation and interference with protected speech and activity under the EERA, and asking NOCCCD to rescind the unlawful directive.

The district did not issue a revised directive until the end of March, meaning the unlawful directive remained in place for nearly four months. It also extended the timeline of its investigation three times, to mid-June 2022 — essentially extending the chilling effect of its retaliation for more than half a year.

“No one holds administrators accountable,” Diep says, alluding to UF members’ past experiences as well as this case. “The only way we’re protected is through our power together in our union.

CTA and UF filed an Unfair Labor Practice charge against NOCCCD in April 2022. The case went to hearing before the Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) which issued its decision in November 2023. PERB found that NOCCCD violated the EERA by retaliating against employees exercising their EERA rights. PERB also found the
language the professor had used while representing UF, and the manner in which the language was used, was appropriate and did not fall outside the scope of EERA protection. PERB ordered the district to withdraw its complaint, post PERB’s findings and expunge all its files pertaining to the case and UF’s lead negotiator.

“This represents a victory over an abuse of authority, power and title,” Diep says. “It is standing up to people who do not have good intentions or the same values or hold the same things to be true.

“Our job as faculty is supposed to be encouraging and helping students think about the world more critically, to question things and to advocate for themselves. If we can’t do that for ourselves, it’s pretty difficult for us to convey that to our students.”