Former classified union president Danielle Nunes announced April 5 that the local workforce is fed up with paying thousands of dollars in annual dues to its Service International Employees Union brethren while getting little in return. The local unit has thus begun the process of decertification.
The local leader told Morgan Hill Unified School District staff and board of education trustees during the April 5 meeting that the 314-strong classified employee unit wants to seek representation from another union or form one amongst themselves.
“We pay $130,000 per year in union dues to SEIU San Jose and feel we don’t get any representation in exchange,” said Nunes, who served as chief steward for Local 521 for five years but is now devoting her time to lead the decertification movement. “This has been coming for a while.”
The uncharted waters got even more choppy April 19 when the district held a public hearing and the board was preparing to vote to accept SEIU’s openers to begin contract negotiations for the local classified unit. The three-year contract expires June 30. Prior to the vote, Nunes said her members were “being held hostage” by SEIU, which was using “scare tactics” to prevent them from voicing their concerns. She told SEIU not to submit the openers since they no longer wanted to be part of its union. SEIU, however, submitted them for the local unit anyway.
Superintendent Steve Betando recommended the board stay out of the boiling feud between the two since “it’s not our role” and just stick with what is required—to hold the public hearing and accept the openers.
“The real key was the openers actually coming to the board,” Betando explained. “Since they are here, whether you accept, approve, reject or say go away, (SEIU) has met the statutory requirements to offer openers…(and) we are required to begin negotiations with them as (the classified staff’s) exclusive representatives.”
The reluctant board, after asking for clarity on the issue, then voted 2-2 on accepting the openers. Trustees Ron Woolf and Gino Borgioli voted in favor, while Board President Bob Benevento and Trustee Rick Badillo voted against it. Trustee Donna Ruebusch abstained and Trustee David Gerard was not in attendance.
“I’m just really not comfortable with this,” said Benevento prior to the vote.
Nunes noted that she has already collected about 200 signatures from members in only two days for the needed 30 percent of its membership—which includes janitors, cafeteria staff and bus drivers serving MHUSD—to be able to put it to a vote. It will be a mail-in vote, Nunes said. The local group’s contract with SEIU expires June 30, 2016, and that’s when they can begin the decertification process.
“We understand representation is important. We don’t want our unit members without it,” said Nunes, who has already begun collecting member signatures to force a vote. “The process has started.”
Nunes cited a lack of support from the San Jose unit, as well as differing political views, as major reasons for their push to decertify from SEIU 521, which received its charter in 2007 and covers workers from the Central Valley and throughout Santa Clara, San Mateo, San Benito, Monterey and Santa Cruz counties.
When asked for a response, SEIU 521 Communications Director Khanh Weinberg referred all questions back to the local Morgan Hill unit.
Nunes said that the San Jose office is aware of Morgan Hill’s intention to decertify and, since learning about it, has attempted to become more active in South County. But it is “classic day late, dollar short,” Nunes said.
However, the possible decertification comes at a critical juncture for the local unit since its three-year bargaining agreement with MHUSD is up at the end of June.
“I know we have a wonderful relationship with the board and with senior cabinet. I am proud of the trust and the relationship I built with all of you and hope to carry that forward,” Nunes said. “It’s going to be an interesting time, but we’re all left to the task of getting it done.”
The local unit, which would remain independent for one year before finding another bargaining union to join, is not the first to decertify from the union. Nunes said she’s heard of other local units leaving SEIU but was unsure which ones. Before joining SEIU more than 20 years ago, the local unit was a member of the California School Employees Association.
