ORANGE : Union Workers Reject School Contract Offer
Orange Unified School District board members had planned to sign a long-overdue contract with the California School Employees Assn. last week but instead went back to the bargaining table.
Both union and district negotiating teams had accepted a tentative contract, but it was voted down by the rank-and-file, 70 to 66.
The last stumbling block is a clause added by the district that would give retirees a supplemental plan for Medicare, said Becky Mayers, president of the local CSEA. The union said the plan was inadequate and asked that the clause be removed.
“It is not a cost issue,” Mayers said. “It would not cost (the district) one red cent to take that out.”
Jack Elsner, personnel director for the district, would not comment in detail on the insurance clause but said the issue was not “insurmountable.”
About 1,200 employees in the district have been working under a contract that was unilaterally imposed by the district last spring. A 10-day strike in May failed to win workers any concessions.
The contract under negotiation would last until September, 1995. It does not offer any raises but does reduce some large employee deductions for benefits, Mayers said.
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