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District at impasse with three unions
By MICHELLE KU
Black Fridays have arrived in Cupertino.
Last week, the three unions in the Cupertino Union School District began showing their solidarity in contract negotiations by wearing all black and a bright, yellow button imprinted with "Fair Contract Now."
The unions--Cupertino Education Association (CEA), California School Employees Association (CSEA) and Service Employees International Union (SEIU)--will continue to wear all black on Fridays until they reach an agreement with the district over salaries.
CEA is the teachers' union, CSEA is the unit representing the classified workers--265 secretaries, clerks and instructional aides--and SEIU represents approximately 190 workers, including janitors, gardeners, food service and skilled trade employees.
"Our members are very committed--as I'm sure the members of CSEA and CEA are--to public education," said Alan Moore, chief negotiator for the skilled trade workers' union. "They just want to receive salaries to live in this area. We're not asking for extreme salaries."
The unions have all declared an impasse in negotiations over the district's proposed 3.55 percent salary increase. The unions have all scheduled sessions with state mediators in April.
"We are rather insulted by the 3.55 last, best and final offer from the district," said Erica Zweig, the labor relations representative for the classified union. "We think the district has more funds and should be respecting the workers more than they are. We've done a survey in terms of the CSEA and SEIU units in Santa Clara and it's the lowest offer made by any school district (in the county). Even for districts who have less funds or funds close to Cupertino, five plus is the standard. The 3.55 came as a big surprise that they did not budget for a decent increase for the classified workers that are fairly low paid.
The teachers' union, which is asking for 7.2 percent, held its first session with a state mediator on March 11. The union has a second mediation meeting scheduled for April 2.
"I think the mediator has helped the process quite a bit," said Steve Trinwith, president of the teachers' union. "I feel there is some movement and hopefully we will be successful."
The other two unions also have sessions scheduled with state mediators in late April. During the last round of discussions, the classified workers' union asked for 8 percent, and the skilled laborers' union for a 6.5 percent increase.
Teachers and members of the classified union have been working without a contract. The teacher contract expired in June and the classified contract in August.
Although salary is the last unresolved issue for the classified workers' union, the teachers' union has several other items--like increasing class preparation time--to discuss once the wage issue has been settled.
While the teachers and classified workers are creating entirely new contracts, the skilled workers' overall contract will remain the same. The changes they are discussing are wages and three other minor issues, including the absence reporting process.
There is one sticking point, however: badges. The district has asked all skilled workers to wear badges for security reasons. At the time district officials presented the badge concept, according to Moore, they also said that top administrators would wear them. Moore said they are backing out of that agreement.
"We said SEIU will lead the way if management is wearing them. Now management is saying they will wear badges if they feel like it," Moore said. "It's bad faith in bargaining. It's also classism because our members are janitors and bus drivers. We feel they are asking us to wear badges because we are blue-collar workers.
Every employee of CUSD has a badge and they are encouraged to wear it when they travel between campuses, said Pat DeMarlo, assistant superintendent for human resources.
But school officials are not required to wear the badges, DeMarlo said. Nor did the district make a promise that management would be mandated to wear them, she said. "We all have badges and we want everyone to wear them," she said.
Representatives from all the unions have stated they traditionally have had good labor relations with the district and do not understand why it is taking the district so long to settle with them.
"Negotiations have been unproductive this year," Moore said. "We feel we have a good relationship with the CUSD and I feel the other unions probably feel the same. We're mystified why negotiations are so difficult. The union has not had bad relations with the district, but it does now."
Moore added, "Two of the unions are heading down the path to a strike. We cannot legally strike because we are under contract."
Zweig warned that the prolonged negotiations are lowering the morale of employees at a time when the district is doing well.
"The message they are sending to the employees is they are not valued and they will have a hard time bringing the morale up when this is over," Zweig said. "They will lose employees because of this on all the bargaining units and I think they should be worried about that. I really don't know why they aren't settling."
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Cupertino, California Since 1947
