Layoff Impacts and Effects Negotiations Update — May 10, 2012
Overview of Layoff Impacts and Effects Negotiations
Today SDEA’s Layoff Impacts and Effects bargaining team met with the District’s team for the third impacts and effects negotiations session (scroll down to read about the results of the last two sessions). There was some progress, and the two teams reached tentative agreement on the ability of recalled members to enroll in the twelve-pay cycle, and the extension of the deadlines for job share.
To view today’s tentative agreement, click below:
Holding Healthcare Hostage
The District continues to refuse to extend laid off members’ healthcare benefits past the current expiration date of June 30, 2012. Today at the bargaining table, SDEA’s team learned that in a closed session School Board meeting earlier this week, the School Board members would not grant their bargaining team the authority to extend healthcare benefits until “the larger problem” had been resolved. They defined “the larger problem” as the issue of “concessions versus layoffs.” The District’s bargaining team said that the Board won’t commit to any healthcare extension until that “other solution” is addressed.
SDEA’s bargaining team expressed outrage over the School Board’s behavior. SDEA President Bill Freeman objected to the District holding members’ healthcare hostage, and stated that for many members and their families this is literally an issue of life or death. Freeman promised to make every person in San Diego aware of what the School Board is threatening if they don’t change their behavior and do the right thing.
What’s Next?
SDEA will continue to seek an extension of health and welfare benefits through the end of the calendar year, as well as other outstanding items in our proposal such as the extension of Post and Bid timelines, return rights for recalled members to their previous positions, the ability of year-round teachers to complete the July school days in their current classrooms, an extended storage period for classroom materials, and the guaranteed right to a leave of absence for up to one year for recalled members who have accepted work in another district.
SDEA’s bargaining team will meet again with the District’s bargaining team on the following dates:
- Monday, May 21
- Wednesday, May 30
Layoff Impacts and Effects Negotiations Update — May 8, 2012
Overview of Layoff Impacts and Effects Negotiations
Each year when the District issues layoff notices, SDEA demands to bargain the impacts and effects of those layoffs. SDEA’s bargaining team met with the District’s bargaining team on May 2, 2012 and again this morning to initiate that bargaining process. SDEA’s bargaining team includes SDEA President Bill Freeman, SDEA Board Secretary and laid off teacher Lindsay Burningham (EB Scripps Elementary School), SDEA site Association Representative and laid off teacher Patrick Schoettler (Millennial Tech Middle School), SDEA Interim Executive Director Tom Madden, and SDEA Field Organizers Erin Clark and Abdul Sayid.
Many elements of SDEA’s proposals mirror what we successfully negotiated during last year’s impacts and effects bargaining, including:
- The right of recalled unit members to return to their positions so long as those positions have not been offered to and accepted by another unit member through Post and Bid,
- The opportunity for teachers at year-round schools to finish the school year in their current classrooms during the month of July,
- Extension of the deadlines for job share, and
- Compensation and assistance for moving classroom materials.
Our proposals also included:
- The extension of health and welfare benefits through December 31, 2012,
- The guaranteed right to a leave of absence for up to one year for recalled members who have accepted work in another district,
- The ability of laid off members to enroll in the twelve-pay cycle, and
- An extended storage period for classroom materials.
The two teams have reached tentative agreement on the following:
- Extension of deadlines for long-term leave requests,
- The right of probationary unit members to waive a recall once for not more than one school year (this right already exists for permanent unit members under the Education Code), and
- Attendance credit at the permanent RIF hearing for laid off permanent members who moved from a traditional to a year-round calendar for the 2011-2012 school year.
To review the most recent proposals from SDEA and the District, click below:
Fighting for Stability
The two primary issues where there seems to be the greatest gap between SDEA and the District are the extension of healthcare benefits, and the guarantee that members who are recalled can automatically go back to their previous positions if those positions are still vacant. Both of these issues are all about stability. Year after year the District lays off hundreds of educators only to bring them back in the fall. Our laid off members deserve to have their health coverage continue during this period. Given the fact that the School Board has indicated that some recalls may occur after the November election based on the passage of a school funding ballot initiative, SDEA is proposing that benefits continue through the end of the calendar year. Extension of health coverage is something the District has agreed to in 2008 and 2011. This year should be no different. The same is true regarding the rights of unit members to return to their own positions, if still vacant. That return right not only increases stability for our members, but brings much-needed continuity to our children and our school communities.