School workers call for 'fair' contracts

YAKIMA, Wash. -- Yakima School District employees -- from teacher's aides to custodians -- pushed for "fair and equitable" contracts Tuesday night at the November business meeting of the district's board of directors.

Representatives of Yakima Educators United, a coalition of Yakima education employees, urged board members to settle negotiations for members of five classified bargaining units that have been working without contracts since Sept. 1.

Three of those five locals -- including the Yakima Association of Paraeducators -- are in mediation.

"We deserve a fair and equitable contract," said YAP president Kristie Maxwell, a paraeducator at Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School. "We deserve a living wage."

Maxwell called the district's paraeducators, or teacher's aides, "hard-working, dedicated and loyal employees."

"We deserve respect," she told the board. "We deserve just treatment."

Bargaining between YAP -- which represents about 270 paraeducators -- and the district started in June and went into mediation last month. Additional sessions are scheduled for Thursday and Friday.

"We need to have our contracts settled," said Janet Beck, who was in the audience and represents the Mid-State UniServ Council, the local office of Washington Education Association.

School board members listened but didn't directly respond to the remarks, presented during the public comment portion of the meeting. President Vickie Ybarra thanked speakers for commenting.

Yakima Educators United is made up of six bargaining units and represents about 1,500 Yakima School District employees -- from teachers and education support personnel to custodians and secretaries.

So far, the teachers are the only ones who have reached agreement. The district and Yakima Education Association, which represents approximately 925 teachers, settled on a two-year contract in September. The contract, which expires in 2011, includes no cost of living raises other than regular step increases.

The paraeducators are advocating a wage increase. Their current salary ranges from $11.86 to $15.14 per hour. They eventually want to see $16.25 per hour become the baseline for their payscale.

At last month's meeting, they staged a walk-out, streaming out of the board room shortly after the start of the meeting. While they were there, they held up yellow signs, wore matching yellow T-shirts and campaigned for higher wages.

Those yellow T-shirts were back in the board room Tuesday night -- along with representatives of other unions.

Becca Allen, president of the Yakima Professional Technical Association, petitioned the district to "work with us to reach an acceptable and fair settlement."

She asked the district to "treat us fairly" and approve "a fair and equitable contract settlement."

The district and YPTA, which represents about 90 staff members, are in mediation.

The district and the Yakima Association of Building Services, which represents more than 100 personnel, are beginning the mediation process.

The district and the Yakima Maintenance Association, which represents about two dozen workers, are still in negotiation. So are the district and the Yakima Educational Office Professionals, which represents more than 100 office staff.

"Our members are continually asked to do more with less," said Steve McKenna, who led the YEA's bargaining team. "We are concerned about the allocation of resources."