District employees demand fair contract

Union members storm out of school board meeting

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Members of the Long Beach Schools Employees Association — encompassing all district workers aside from teachers and administrators — stormed out of the Board of Education’s Oct. 13 meeting after demanding a fair contract.

Joanne Rea, a bus driver and president of the LBSEA, confronted the school board to publicize the group’s contractual dispute with the district, which has taken place for more than a year, before she and about 100 employees swiftly exited the Long Beach Middle School auditorium.

“Each and every one of us values our job, yet we feel as though we are not valuable to this district,” Rea told the board. “…We are made to feel as though we are not important by failing to negotiate a fair living wage. Our dedication to the district may sometimes go unnoticed, but without us, this district could not operate.”

The LBSEA encompasses a wide range of employees across the district’s seven schools, including custodial staff, office clerical staff, teaching assistants, as well as workers in the food service, transportation and grounds and maintenance departments. The demonstration was similar to one organized by teachers at a September meeting, who are involved in a separate contract dispute with the district, Rea said.

“I don’t think the public knows that we’re without a contract, and what better venue to show them how important we are than the Board of Education,” Aileen Monahan, vice president of the LBSEA, said after the meeting. “They don’t think we’re important. We’re hoping the parents do.”

The LBSEA — referred to within the district as Group C — are currently operating under a contract that expired in June 2015, according to Schools Superintendent David Weiss. That contract was settled during the 2014-15 school year and covered the preceding two school years, he added.

Rea has claimed her group does not get raises, while the district grants raises to administrators “without even a flinch,” she said. But Weiss said many members of the group’s bargaining unit get automatic step increases each year — incremental salary upgrades based on longevity of service — while administrators, who do not receive such increases, get raises in a different form.

“Is that a raise?” Weiss asked, referring to step increases. “Has the value of the step increases increased? Not while a contract is expired, but the steps continue.”

Weiss said the district’s employees are appreciated, but added that the Board of Education has a responsibility to take into account the district’s financial restraints caused by the state tax cap. During the last school year, the district took out $2.3 million from its reserve accounts in order to cover the gap between revenues and expenditures, according to Michael DeVito, the district’s chief operating officer. The schools have used nearly $13 million from those reserves since 2010.

“We are currently in a deficit where we are drawing on our reserves as a revenue source and we don’t anticipate the tax cap increasing to even the 2 percent level in the foreseeable future, so we have an economic reality that places a limit in our ability to settle contracts,” Weiss said. “That’s not a question of whether or not people are valued, it’s a question of the economic reality and how you get to a number that both sides consider to be fair.”

Rea said they would be holding “informational pickets” at future Board of Education and City Council meetings, and school board members’ homes until they receive a contract with a “living wage.”

“My group unfortunately works two and three jobs just to make ends meet,” said Rea. “It’s just not right. Nobody is asking to get rich off the district, but we want to be able to not live paycheck to paycheck and borrow from Peter to pay Paul. We just want to be comfortable.”

If an agreement cannot be made and an impasse is declared, Weiss said it is normal for both parties to employ a mediator to help in contract talks. Rea said that the LBSEA declared an impasse on Sept. 13, but is waiting on the district to respond and move forward with a mediator.

If no progress is made from there, the state’s Public Employment Relations Board would appoint a fact-finder to analyze the contract negotiations and make a recommendation on a fair compromise based on local conditions and what similar school districts in the area have agreed upon, Weiss added.

“The history in this district has been that after a period without a settlement and when we feel that the ability to reach a settlement at the negotiation table is not bearing fruit, that is a direction that the district has gone to in the past,” Weiss told the Herald. “I think that we’re getting close to that time.”