Norwalk's school support staff has a new contract after a year of working without one. On Wednesday, an arbitration panel awarded a contract that includes a small raise and a change in health care plans to the Norwalk Federation of Education Personnel, led by president Donna Riddell.
The union represents 425 aides, clerks, secretarial and support staff and is the city's second-largest bargaining unit, after the teachers' union.
The four-year contract, retroactive to last year, includes a 2 percent incremental raise for the next three years, but no raise for this year. The bulk of the savings will come from a change in heath care plans — the union will join the High Deductible Health Savings Account Plan that was established for teachers last year when their contract was renegotiated. According to a Board of Education statement, the heath care changes "will more than offset the increase in wages, providing much needed relief to Norwalk taxpayers."
The union will not have any increases in longevity payments, a yearly stipend for employees that have worked for the schools for more than 10 years. In addition, a cap was put on sick leave accumulation. Union members will still be allowed to have their children attend Norwalk schools as a professional courtesy.
For the past year, the support staff has been in contentious negotiations with the school board, which led to the need for an arbitration panel this summer.
"This is the worst arbitration we've ever had to go through," Riddell said. "The Board of Education members were argumentative, rude and disrespectful. We were willing to negotiate, but they [the BOE] chose arbitration instead."
Jack Chairamonte, chairman of the school board's negotiating committee, disagreed, saying that some of the union's demands such as a 3.5 percent raise were untenable. "We all the respect for the support staff, but you can't negotiate with union leaders who have kicked their heads in the sand."
The union represents 425 aides, clerks, secretarial and support staff and is the city's second-largest bargaining unit, after the teachers' union.
The four-year contract, retroactive to last year, includes a 2 percent incremental raise for the next three years, but no raise for this year. The bulk of the savings will come from a change in heath care plans — the union will join the High Deductible Health Savings Account Plan that was established for teachers last year when their contract was renegotiated. According to a Board of Education statement, the heath care changes "will more than offset the increase in wages, providing much needed relief to Norwalk taxpayers."
The union will not have any increases in longevity payments, a yearly stipend for employees that have worked for the schools for more than 10 years. In addition, a cap was put on sick leave accumulation. Union members will still be allowed to have their children attend Norwalk schools as a professional courtesy.
For the past year, the support staff has been in contentious negotiations with the school board, which led to the need for an arbitration panel this summer.
"This is the worst arbitration we've ever had to go through," Riddell said. "The Board of Education members were argumentative, rude and disrespectful. We were willing to negotiate, but they [the BOE] chose arbitration instead."
Jack Chairamonte, chairman of the school board's negotiating committee, disagreed, saying that some of the union's demands such as a 3.5 percent raise were untenable. "We all the respect for the support staff, but you can't negotiate with union leaders who have kicked their heads in the sand."
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The aides and secretaries had offered exactly what the arbitrator awarded--if the arbitration award is a savings for the BOE, why did they spend tons of $$ on lawyers and arbitration, especially after the BOE provided for the 2% raise for this year in the budget?
ReplyDeleteWhile I may not represent either side on this issue, it is apparent to me that Jack Chiaramonte represents a faction of Norwalkers who have grown skeptical of our public schools and their questionable internal financial agendas over the past years. He may not play nice, but that is why the voters elected him and he is following through on that mandate.
ReplyDeleteOn the flip side, there are good, honest, wonderful people who work in our schools who are not receiving the proper recognition they deserve. Teachers also are doing without the proper materials they need to instruct their students. Still, the question of financial accountability remains: have those hidden pockets of money, which former supers later seem to find, been sniffed out completely? As long as there is room for debate, like we see with the support staff issue, a transparency with line by line numbers and figures must still be lacking. There should be no question about where our money is prioritized and where it must go. Everyone should understand one argument only. If this hasn't been presented to all parties concerned, we should expect different points of view.
Hold everything-
ReplyDeleteThe NFEP offered pretty much the same deal that the arbiter awarded. In fact, the administrators said that they would forego their raises and switch their insurance to the HSA if the Board of Ed approved the NFEP deal.
So, "skeptical" Jack and Jody Bishop Pull-A-Fast-One decide that the deal's not good enough.
Lots of money spent on lawyers later-- we have the same deal with the NFEP, but no administrator givebacks. Wow! Jack and Jody really showed those secretaries. Of course, in the budget they both voted for, they had already included a 2 % raise for the clerks and aides, so how did they think they would win that point in arbitration?
Can we please ask Jack Chiarmonte and Bruce Mellion to stop the back-and-forth? Or let them debate if the unions offered anything of value once and for all and then be done with it.
ReplyDeleteThe tough thing for me is seeing only one guy on the school board who will debate spending and budget transfers, but then have the vice-chairman yell about the unions being greedy.
If the Central Office gave back so much, why are Dadonna and Rutolo making more this year than they did last year?
From what was talked about last night, Liberatore didn't give anything back-- in fact she was getting buckets of money for doing jobs that should have paid a lot less.
At least one other interim got a raise.
So, Jack, what did central office really give to balance the budget?
...According to a BOE statement, the health care changes "will more than offset the increase in wages, providing much needed relief to Norwalk taxpayers"
ReplyDeleteSo the Board of EDUCATION has now become a relief agency for the Norwalk taxpayers. Understand that a lot of taxpayer money was blown on this needless arbitration. The board should get back to providing what is necessary for the education of our kids. Leave tax relief to the Board of Estimate!