ORANGE : School Workers to Decide on Strike

Classified employees in the Orange Unified School District are poised to strike over the district’s refusal to renegotiate a school board-imposed contract, which union officials say amounts to “union-busting.”

At a 5 p.m. meeting today, union employees will decide whether to strike in the wake of a controversial contract approved by the Board of Education in March. The contract cuts health benefits, imposes furloughs and empowers the district to lay off union employees or reduce their working hours without negotiating.

“Basically, I’m finding the attitude within the union is, enough is enough,” said Becky Mayers, president of the California School Employees Assn., Chapter 67.

Mayers said classified employees have not had a raise since 1988, and took a 2.59% pay cut last year.

The union represents 1,160 non-teaching professionals, including bus drivers and maintenance, food service and clerical workers. The last and only time the union walked out was a one-day sickout in 1989, Mayers said.

While admitting a strike would “hamper” the district, officials say they have contingency plans to cope with busing an estimated 7,000 students to school and providing before- and after-school child care for hundreds of students at 24 elementary schools.

“It’s our intent that we will carry on,” said Jack Elsner, the district’s head of personnel. “A strike will hamper us, no doubt.”

The schools are also prepared to supply students with breakfast and lunch as before, Elsner said.

School board members say the contract, the result of 11 months of negotiations, is final. Classified employees should share the burden, along with the teachers and administration, in making up a $2.2-million shortfall facing the district this year, they argue.

The contract, which would save $484,113, is crucial for the district’s financial health, district officials said. Under the contract, classified employees would be forced to take three furlough days, and some would have to pay up to $87 a month to maintain their current level of health benefits.

“We are hopeful things can be worked out to avoid a strike,” said board President Maureen Aschoff.

Union officials said they are especially outraged over a contract clause that gives the district the power to lay off workers or cut their hours without negotiation. For example, the clause would enable the district to save on health benefits by laying off a full-time employee, and then hiring two part-time workers to fill the spot. (Employers do not have to pay part-time employees health benefits.)

“That’s the craziest thing about the contract,” Mayers said. “If we allow them to implement that, next year there might not be benefits to fight over.”

Elsner conceded that the contract clause gives the district power to lay off workers without negotiation, but said its potential use is being exaggerated by the union.

Because of their contract, district teachers are not allowed to support a strike by the classified employees, said David Reger, head of the teachers union. Teachers who honor picket lines would be subject to dismissal, he said.