S.D. Unified Workers Press Trustees for Raise

About 150 office and technical workers in the San Diego city schools attended Tuesday’s trustees meeting to press for a salary increase they said is commensurate with other school district employees.

Contracts for the 1,300 workers--who include secretaries, clerks, payroll technicians and other employees--expired Dec. 31, said James M. Carvalho, executive director of the Classified Employees Assn. The two sides are at an impasse in negotiations.

Carvalho claimed that the San Diego Unified School District is refusing to offer the workers many of the same benefits enjoyed by the district’s 11,700 other employees because the office workers are mostly women.

The union is seeking a 4% pay raise in the first year of a proposed three-year contract, plus a 4% bonus and an additional pay step for employees who have worked more than six years.

The school district is offering a 4% salary increase during the first year, a 3% bonus and no additional pay step, he said.

In addition to the smaller pay increases, the district is offering lower retiree medical benefits than those received by other school system employees--including a separate group of 1,700 workers also represented by the CEA. The district is not offering vision care insurance that other employees have, Carvalho said.