Morgan Hill – While the Morgan Hill Federation of Teachers may be pleased with a salary agreement negotiated with the Morgan Hill Unified School District, the Service Employees International Union is far from pleased with the result of its negotiations with district officials.
District officials say they’re offering the 303 classified employees – bus drivers, custodians, secretaries and cooks – a 6 percent salary increase this year. SEIU officials, however, say the district is only offering them a 2 percent wage raise and a 3 percent increase in health insurance benefits.
On Sept. 12, school trustees voted unanimously to give teachers a 5.5 salary increase during the 2006-07 school year, the highest wage jump in the last six years. The increase came after no raises in the 2002-03 and 2003-04 school years, then a 2 percent increase in 2004-05 and 1 percent in 2005-06.
Superintendent Alan Nishino said health insurance benefits for classified workers will increase from $5,022 to $6,300 this year, and to $7,200 next year.
SEIU Chair Pam Torrisi has told trustees union members would not accept the district’s final offer.
Torrisi described the district’s offer as “unpalatable to the negotiating team.”
The employees voted unanimously Wednesday evening to reject the offer.
Nishino said there is a misunderstanding about the offer the district has made and added that the employees have been offered the same 5 percent increase as the teachers, with the difference that the teachers have accepted the offer of an extra day of work for an extra .5 percent, while the classified employees have been offered an additional 1 percent for working two additional days.
“It costs .5 percent to buy a day,” said Deputy Superintendent Bonnie Tognazzini. “We are offering to buy two days.”
The employees’ hourly wages and the hours per day and days per year that they work vary greatly, so there is no “average” salary, according to district officials.
According to Tognazzini, 11 employees work up to four hours per day, 62 employees work five hours per day, 55 employees work six hours per day, and 175 employees work seven or more hours per day.
Employees who work up to four hours per day qualify for 50 percent health benefits, employees working five hours qualify for 63 percent benefits, employee working six hours qualify for 75 percent of the benefits, while working seven or more hours qualifies employees for 100 percent of their benefits.
The employees are currently working without a contract and are waiting for the union’s negotiating team to meet with trustees to settle the differences. A meeting is scheduled for Tuesday at 6pm at district headquarters.
“We feel a little bit insulted by what they’re trying to give us but on the same token we understand they’re looking at the whole pie, but when the teachers are getting 5.5 percent it’s not fair,” said a classified employee who did not want to be identified.
“The funny thing is that when we go to meetings the supervisors tell us how much they appreciate us, but then when they offer us this it’s like a slap in the face,” he said.
One of the biggest obstacles to reaching an agreement with the district is the health benefits package, he said.
Torrisi said SEIU employees want the same package as Morgan Hill Federation of Teachers employees and Morgan Hill Educational Leaders Association members.
“That’s not what we were offered. What we were offered was less than that; we did the math over the weekend … We’re still going backwards in our take-home pay. We’ve been going backwards for so many years. What we would like is to take a step ahead for a change. We don’t want the moon, we just want a raise,” Torrisi said.
Nishino said the district reached a three-year deal with the teachers union last year to make teacher health benefits comparable to other district teacher benefits.
“SEIU refused to do that last year, and now we’re in a bind to get them there,” he said.
Marilyn Dubil covers education and law enforcement for The Times. Reach her at (408) 779-4106 ext. 202 or at md****@*************es.com.
