With three weeks left in the 2006-07 school year, the Morgan
Hill Unified School District has finally reached a possible
contract agreement with the Service Employees International Union
Local 521, which represents classified workers including bus
drivers, maintenance workers, instructional aides, custodians,
cooks and clerks.
Morgan Hill – With three weeks left in the 2006-07 school year, the Morgan Hill Unified School District has finally reached a possible contract agreement with the Service Employees International Union Local 521, which represents classified workers including bus drivers, maintenance workers, instructional aides, custodians, cooks and clerks.
“I am pleased that members of both negotiating teams were able to bring about a mutually-agreed upon contract for this year and next,” said MHUSD Superintendent Alan Nishino. “It is our desire and hope that we will continue to have open dialogue and resolve our contract issues in a timely fashion.”
The agreement is tentative until it is voted on by union members next week. If they ratify the agreement, it will be presented to the MHUSD Board of Education for ratification.
Details of the agreement cannot be made public until it is ratified by union members, according to union officials.
“It absolutely took way too long, but I think we have a good deal, a deal that the members will be able to get behind,” said Loree Doyle, schools director for SEIU. “We’re glad we were able to get to this point. For the most part, the members of the negotiating team feel good about it. I think we’ve pushed them as far is possible.”
MHUSD Assistant Superintendent Jay Totter, one of the negotiating team members for the district, said the district is pleased that the tentative agreement was reached.
The district and the union have been in mediation since March, after negotiations reached an impasse.
The 300-plus employees said they want the same 5 percent salary increase that the district’s other two bargaining units received last fall.
District officials said that the current 8 percent salary increase over two years that was offered to SEIU members is fair. The offer gives the employees the opportunity to negotiate another salary increase next year. Classified workers say the increase offered by the district includes benefit money, while the increase for the Morgan Hill Federation of Teachers and the Morgan Hill Educational Leaders Association is separate from their benefits.
Doyle said she thinks there are a couple of good things to come out of the situation.
“When they sit down at the table next year, hopefully the district and the board will think a little before they push so hard the other way,” she said. “I also think this has shed a little insight into the superintendent and the board. A lot has come out as a result of this, about how the elected members of this board treat (Nishino) more as supervisor than as an employee.”
If SEIU members do not ratify the agreement next week, Doyle said, the mediator said he would move forward to the fact-finding stage.
“If it comes to that, we can strike,” Doyle said.
