Unionism on the cutting edge of change
Dean Mancina:  Orange County Unionist of the Year

October, 2008 — Dean Mancina has been an important voice for the rights of faculty and classified employees in the Coast Community College District for three decades. This year that work was acknowledged and honored when the Orange County Labor Federation named him as its "Unionist of the Year." 

Mancina, who has been president of the Coast Federation of Educators, AFT Local 1911, for the last five years, came into the District in 1978. Originally from Culver City in Los Angeles County, Mancina moved with his family to Orange County when fruit trees and fields still dotted the landscape.

But the County had already embarked on the huge spurt of growth that eventually wiped out most of those orchards, replacing them with the factories and high-rise office parks that dominate its skyline today. "In my sixth-grade class," he remembers, "I was the 56th student. I had to sit at the teacher's desk, since there was no other place for me to sit."

Children of that era were busy learning Spanish, he says, but economic growth was leading to profound changes in Orange County's demographics. Today most sixth graders are busy learning English, and the politics of the county have been transformed. For two decades Congressman Bob Dornan, known as "B-1 Bob" for his unstinting support of military contractors, represented Orange County in Washington. Dornan helped give the county its reputation as the most conservative in California. But twelve years ago changing economics and demographics created a political groundswell that unseated Dornan and upset much of the Republican Party. Loretta Sanchez won election to Orange County's Congressional seat. 

More than a witness
Mancina has been more than a witness to those changes. He helped to build a union in the community college district at the county's heart. In the process, he helped create the space in which that political change took place, and helped protect the jobs of faculty and classified employees in a rapidly changing world.

Dean Mancina went to college at CSU Long Beach in accounting, while working in retail stores. "I loved and understood the numbers because they were connected to something real, to dollars," he remembers. "But when I graduated, I discovered I didn't really want to be an accountant. So I went back to school and studied educational psychology, hoping to get a job in school counseling or in academic support programs." 

On completing his master's degree, he saw a job advertised at Golden West College, one of the campuses in the Coast College district. There were 168 applicants for a position administering a new peer-tutoring program. "There was a lot of unemployment in 1978," he recalls, "so you had people with advanced degrees applying for lots of non-faculty positions." Because of his diverse background, he was hired.

When Mancina began at Golden West, he was a classified employee. His first union involvement was in a chapter of the California School Employees Association. "I had a situation in which I was called into the Dean's office, and blamed for something that wasn't my fault. I didn't know a thing about unions, but I asked for help, and discovered that while management wouldn't listen to me, they would listen to the union. I could see it was obviously a good thing to have someone on my side." 

His accounting background stood him in good stead, and he became treasurer of the classified union just a few years afterwards. In the early 1980s, Mancina and other classified members became dissatisfied with their parent organization, and switched to the California Federation of Teachers. "We saw that the faculty union [a CFT local] had much more support, and we wanted to be part of it. We made a good decision."

At first the classified and faculty belonged to the same local. Eventually they decided that separate local unions would better serve their interests. "Nevertheless," Mancina says, "I've belonged to both, and we work closely together." After working as a classified employee for several years, Mancina's position was reclassified, and he became a member of the faculty union. In 1992 he was elected treasurer, serving for 12 years. He was then elected local president.

Pioneering union policies
The Coast Federation has been one of the pioneers in the CFT on issues posed by new technology, privatization and contracting out. The union has taken on policies governing computer use, efforts to farm out tech support for computerized student services, and corporate plans for reshaping jobs and curriculum in the district's nursing program.

Last year the board of trustees introduced a proposed policy in response to allegations of computer misuse. "It was a draconian reaction totally out of proportion to their real problem," explained Mancina, prohibiting the use of district computer systems even for necessary college work. The district also said it had the right to monitor all electronic communications without prior notice or consent. "They even told us that if we ever accessed district email from our home computers they could enter our homes to inspect the hard drive," Mancina recalls.

The faculty and classified unions proposed an alternative, and the district eventually agreed to a policy that protects faculty, classified employees and students from accusations of misuse. Mancina says, "The District recognizes the privacy interests of faculty and staff and their rights to freedom of speech, shared governance, and academic freedom." As additional protection, the faculty union set up its own cable network and email system, using its own computers.

Mancina also blew the whistle on a proposal to subcontract out essential services to students, using online instructional software called Blackboard. The firms that produced the program were given a contract, worth $217,000 per year, to provide tech support during the evening and weekend hours. "I have a webpage for students, and I had a problem inserting a new item," Mancina recalls. He called the help desk after hours. "A pleasant woman with a Kentucky accent spent 35 minutes on the phone with me, finally finding a workaround solution that allowed me to post my material properly. The next day, just as a test, I asked our local help desk the same question, and they showed me the correct way to use the program to do this, and it took three minutes."

Mancina also led the union's effort to challenge the creation of a nursing program under the control of a big hospital corporation, Memorial Healthcare Services. When the company offered to lend one of its employees to help expand the district's program, it not only wanted the teacher to remain its own employee, but also to decide on the curriculum. "At first, we simply wanted to make sure that this new faculty member would be entitled to representation," Mancina recalls. Then the faculty discovered that the district had created job titles for six other new positions, whose duties would be the same as those of any other faculty members.

"We went to our Labor Council," Mancina says. At the council's request Assemblyman Jose Solorio wrote to the Chancellor and urged him to respect union representation. The trustees backed down, and agreed that any new nursing teachers would have the same representation rights as other faculty. 

Making change
Mancina's involvement with the labor council, the grouping of other local unions in Orange County, grew when he became one of its vice-presidents. "We're only a small local union of 800 members," he says, "but with 60,000 members in the council, I feel they have my back." 

Coast College faculty and classifieds have tried to reciprocate. At a recent demonstration they backed the efforts of Disneyland Hotel workers to keep their medical benefits. "Hundreds of us moved into the intersection blocking the entrance to the park," he recalls. Twenty-five people (not Mancina) were arrested in acts of civil disobedience. "It was really exciting," he enthuses. "I love being part of making change for working class people. Our Orange County labor movement will support any effort to make life better, whether it's for custodians, healthcare workers, domestics or college faculty." 

Mancina became part of recent efforts to restructure the labor council. "We felt we weren't living up to our potential, at the same time we are living in what's still a very conservative county where we really need positive political change." He cites the hostile climate in cities like Costa Mesa, where the police have been told to stop and question people on the streets about their immigration status.

"We have a huge influx of Latinos and Vietnamese immigrants. At work we can see the face of the college changing," he says. "People are changing the culture of the county, and getting involved socially and politically. When I went to high school, there was just one African American student, and now white students are only 40% of the campus population at Coast. But I believe a lot of the anti-immigrant sentiment is changing. These are working-class families, that need the labor movement to stand up with them."

Those sentiments have led Mancina, his members at Coast, and Orange County unionists to turn out in record numbers to work on the November election. "We held a candidates' academy," he says, "so that people running for office could learn about our priorities, and what our expectations would be if we helped them get elected. Many local candidates participated and were very supportive. That's going to help us keep them accountable after the election."

Their eyes are also turned on the crucial choice in the presidential contest. "If Barack Obama doesn't become president," Mancina worries, "our labor movement is in trouble. We have to stop this terrifying cycle in the country, in which working people are being pushed down. Our country used to be respected in the world, and we should be setting an example in how working families are treated. Our only chance is with Barack."

by David Bacon