YORBA LINDA : School Pickets Go Up as Labor Talks Stall

Several dozen classified employees of the Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District walked a picket line at district headquarters this week to call attention to stalled contract talks.

Classified employees have been working without a contract since last July. Negotiations between the California School Employees Assn. and district officials yielded little progress on several key provisions of a new contract, and a state mediator was called in last week to evaluate the chance of a settlement.

According to Tim Van Eck, assistant superintendent for personnel, the mediator determined that the impasse should move to the next phase in which a panel--composed of a union representative, a district official and a judge--will review offers from both sides as well as the district’s financial position, then make a non-binding recommendation.

If the panel determines that the district’s financial documents support its offer, the district can then make its last and best offer to the union, which represents bus drivers, secretaries, maintenance workers and other non-teaching employees. If the union rejects the offer, the district can implement it without union approval.

The district has offered a two-year contract that freezes both pay and the amount the district pays for health care benefits. The contract contains a provision that would allow the district to renegotiate wages--called a reopener clause--if there is a significant change in the district’s budget.

The California School Employees Assn. proposes a three-year contract without a reopener clause. The union is not asking for a cost-of-living adjustment but does want to continue step increases, which raise salaries for employees after they have worked a certain number of years. The district’s proposal freezes step increases.

The union is also asking the district to pay for any increase in the cost of health care benefits.