DUBOIS – The DuBois Area School District responded to the DuBois Area Educational Support Professional Association’s announcement that they will be going on strike Thursday morning.
DESPA is comprised of aides who help out in the school setting, whether it is as a nurse’s aide or teacher’s aide or as a secretary.
DESPA had been negotiating since January 2003 for a new contract. In essence, DESPA has been negotiating with three different school boards since 2003, according to Sharon L. Kirk, DuBois Area School District Superintendent.
Kirk said school will remain in session.
“It won’t be easy,” said Kirk.
According to a release by the board, “The Sept. 25 meeting with the union ended in the board removing the current settlement offer from the bargaining table due to the union’s unwillingness to make a yes or no decision on the offer as was agreed to at the previous meeting on Sept. 12. The settlement offer that was taken off of the table was less lucrative for the union members than the previous settlement offer which the union rejected.”
The statement reads that that settlement offer was so lucrative for the union members that the board did not believe that the union actually wanted to settle the contract under any conditions.
The statement says that the board wanted to be very clear on exactly what that settlement consisted of, since the union is saying the board is trying to trick their members into signing and that they will actually receive less money in the end after consideration of the terms of the contract.
That settlement consisted of raises of 3.25 percent per year plus offsets for the co-pay that the board was requiring on the employees’ health care plan. The offer also gave many employees who were working 1,309 hours per year the opportunity to work between 1,640 and 2,080 per year. The reasoning behind that was because one of the union’s original objections to making co-payments on their health care was that workers did not make as much money as other employees due to the hours they worked, according to the board’s release.
The average increase in wages and the average total wages in that offer are as follows:
Bus Aides including full benefit package would have a total hourly wage of $13.04, and the final increase per hour in 2011 would be $6.74.
Child-Specific Aides with full benefit package would have a total hourly wage of $13.02, and the final increase per hour would be $6.37.
Health Aides with full benefit package would have a total hourly wage of $14.92, and the final increase per hour would be $5.73.
Secretaries with full benefit package would have a total hourly wage of $14.68, and the final increase per hour would be $5.88.
Teachers’ Aides with full benefit package would have a total hourly wage of $14.38, and the final increase per hour would be $5.44.
Child-Specific Aides without benefits would have a total hourly wage of $10.95, and the final increase per hour would be $5.09.
Teacher’s Aides without benefits would have a total hourly wage of $11.42, and the final increase per hour would be $4.43.
According to the statement, the health care co-payments have been accepted by all of the other employee contracts of the district. The actual employee is covered at no cost.
“What this amounts to on average, is any full-time employee that was working 1,309 hours will now work 1,640 hours will have a gross wage of approximately $9,900 higher than it previously was at the end of the proposed contract,” according to the board’s statement. “Out of that increase, the board would have required that they pay a maximum of $4,000 per year towards health care if they covered more than just themselves under the district’s plan.”
Part-time employees would have no requirement to pay those costs, and neither would they have benefits as outlined above.
“The union contends that they do not make the same money as the rest of the district’s employees and therefore should not have to pay for any of their health care,” according to the board. “The board does not believe that anyone could look at the wages presented above and feel that the union has a point.
“Further, when individuals go to buy groceries, gasoline, clothes, a soft drink from a vending machine or any other consumer good, they do not get a break just because they do not make the same amount of money as the person standing beside them purchasing the same commodity,” according to the statement.
“If the union decides to call a strike, the board is dedicated to run the school by whatever means necessary so as not to punish the children, parents, teachers and other stakeholders in the district,” the board said through the statement. “While the board feels this would be an unwise move for the union, it does not control that decision.”