Laguna Beach : Union Pickets Protest at School Trustees’ Meeting

About a dozen pickets from the California School Employees Assn. greeted the Laguna Beach Unified School District’s trustees at the school board’s regular meeting Thursday night.

The pickets, about a dozen in all, bore placards reading “Classified Employees Are People, Too” and other slogans. One sign depicted a classified employee being guillotined by a hooded school board member.

The pickets, led by union President Linda Burton, sat in on the session but did not address the board. Later, Burton said the union took the action to demonstrate its resolve to the school board, which she said is “pretty much teacher-oriented down the line.”

Classified employees, she said, are as important to education as teachers. “Classifieds teach, too; we’re instructional aides and librarians and act as role models for the children. . . . We’d like some fair treatment,” Burton said.

The union and the district have been at odds for the last year over the district’s practice of contracting out for some non-teaching services. The issue has become a major stumbling block in contract talks between the CSEA, which represents the district’s non-teaching employees, and the school district. The negotiations, which have been under way for about a year, have remained at an impasse despite two sessions with a mediator.

The union contends that under terms of its contract, the district may only contract for food service, data processing and transportation workers, and only after reaching agreements with the union. The district maintains that the contract with the union permits contracting out, provided the district gives the union 10 days’ notice.

Earlier this week the union filed a lawsuit alleging that the district violated provisions of the California Education Code when it laid off seven workers whose functions were taken over by Costa Mesa-based Porto Building Maintenance Inc.

The suit seeks reinstatement of the seven positions, with five of the openings to be filled by the laid-off custodians who have told the union they want their jobs back. Supt. Bill Barnes said the district gave the union notice when it decided to contract with the private maintenance company in 1983, and that no suit was filed at that time.

Barnes added that a court decision in favor of the union would foist an economic hardship on the district, so school administrators are prepared to fight the action all the way to the State Supreme Court. “I don’t think we have any choice,” he said.