State mediation agency to help both sides solve labor
dispute
Morgan Hill – The Morgan Hill Unified School District and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) agreed this week they’re at an impasse in contract negotiations.
District Assistant Superintendent Jay Totter and classified employees say the next step is to get the groups to mediation talks led by the Public Employment Relations Board (PERB).
Negotiations between the SEIU Local 715, which is comprised of the district’s classified workers, including bus drivers, custodians, secretaries, aides, mechanics, groundskeepers, food service workers and maintenance workers, and the MHUSD have been stalled for months. Union members said the district’s last offer was “unfair” when compared to the negotiated salary increases of the two other district groups, Morgan Hill Federation of Teachers and Morgan Hill Educational Leaders Association.
The district has offered the union 8 percent over two years in salary and benefits. MHFT members received a 5 percent raise in salary, as did MHELA members.
SEIU Chair Pam Torrisi said she is “not surprised” that mediation will be the next step.
“That’s where we always thought it would go,” she said. “We were willing to give it a last chance and meet and see if we could find some common ground, and we wanted to show the board we were bargaining in good faith.”
Torrisi said the union was willing to meet with Totter to “bring him up to speed, to help him catch up” with the situation, as he came on board as the assistant superintendent in charge of human resources for the district after the contract “openers” started in the fall.
But, Torrisi, said, when Totter agreed to meet, it was not to fill him in on the situation but to find out what the classified workers wanted to tell school board trustees. The union had requested meetings with trustees, even scheduled some of them, in December, only to have them canceled by the district, Torrisi said. Once it was clear what the purpose of the union’s meeting with Totter was, she added, the union refused to meet, and the district declared an impasse.
Calls for comment by Totter and School Board President Peter Mandel were not returned by presstime.
Marilyn Dubil covers education and law enforcement for The Times. Reach her at (408) 779-4106 ext. 202 or at md****@*************es.com.
