Earlier this year, the Riverside Community College District (RCCD) Board of Trustees unanimously approved the district to cover 100% of the health insurance premiums of eligible Associate Faculty members at all three of its colleges – Riverside Community College, Moreno Valley College and Norco College. Eligibility requires these members to have a teaching assignment of 0.4 or greater. Additionally, RCCD agreed to refund the money that Associate Faculty members spent during the 2023-2024 academic year on health care premiums for RCCD health insurance options.

But how did this win become possible? In an interview with the five-person RCCD Faculty Association negotiation team who worked so hard to secure this agreement, they highlighted that although this was a long process that started back in 2022, it was well worth it.

“Our administration had initially wanted to wait for a statewide insurance exchange to be created, so they stalled our negotiation. Thus, we pleaded directly to our Board of Trustees to bring the administration to the negotiation table, which was successful. We not only got free health care for our Associate Faculty members, but we also got them a full reimbursement for the money they spent on health care premiums for the year,” said Virgil Lee, RCCD Faculty Association Co-Lead Negotiator and Full-Time Faculty at Norco College.

“We had colleagues from other chapters that shared their contracts and memorandums of understanding, so they had a lot of examples that we can learn from. Being really prepared was helpful because the district was not prepared,” said Jennifer Floerke, Full-Time Faculty at Moreno Valley College.

“Having conversations to lessen fears from district management was key,” said Rhejean King-Johnson, Associate Faculty at Moreno Valley College.

“This was an equity issue for employees since Associate Faculty members were the only major employee group in RCCD who weren’t provided free health insurance. Also, once this agreement was in place, RCCD became the premium district in our region since it is the only district in the area that pays 100% of the health insurance premiums for its part-time faculty members. Only a few districts in the state have done this!” said Virgil Lee.

“We sincerely thank the RCCD administration and the Board of Trustees for working with the RCCD Faculty Association to bring health care equity to all RCCD employees. I would also like to take this opportunity to express our heartfelt gratitude and appreciation for the RCCD Faculty Association’s negotiation team who worked so hard on securing this agreement,” said Dr. Rhonda Taube, RCCD Faculty Association President.