School custodians, clerical workers and aides have overwhelmingly
rejected a proposed four-year contract that would have provided a 4
percent raise. In a vote Monday night, 720 Civil Service
Employees Association members voted against the plan, while just 26
supported it, said Bentley Summers, CSEA unit president. The union
represents about 1,800 school employees.
"This is what the people want to do," Summers said.
"You can't control them. You can't tell them what to do or not to
do."
Summers led the negotiating committee that agreed to the proposed accord in late March, settling for a smaller wage increase in exchange for preserving the union's benefit package, which includes health insurance with no employee contribution to premiums.
But the union's rank-and-file, whose last contract expired June 20, 2003, was dissatisfied with a pact that included no retroactive raises for the 2003-04 and 2004-05 school years, but only raises of 2 percent in each of the next two years.
Principal clerk Bobbie DiBattista said members couldn't swallow taking two years without raises, noting the the city's police and firefighters both received 4 percent raises in each of those years.
"Two zeros just didn't cut it for anybody," DiBattista said.
Board of Education President Robert Ferrito said the board had no immediate plans to restart negotiations. Ferrito is preparing for the release of Mayor Phil Amicone's budget on Friday, which is expected to leave the schools with a substantial revenue shortfall.
"I think the district negotiated in good faith, and we thought it was fair, in light of the financial situation we are in," Ferrito said.
Summers, who plans to retire in July after his term expires, said he's uncertain about the union's next move. He acknowledged that the city's police and firefighters won raises in 2003-04 and 2004-05. But he warned that Board of Education employees shouldn't get caught up in comparisons.
"Everybody tells me what raises everybody else got, but I tell them, 'You don't work there. You work for the Board of Ed. This is what they got to give you. And you have to live with it,' " Summers said.
But DiBattista said CSEA members hadn't had a raise since 2003 and expect to do better. "We waited for two years and got two zeros," she said. "Looks like we'll wait longer."