L.A. Unified, Classified Workers Reach Deal

Negotiators for the Los Angeles Unified School District and the union representing 38,000 classified workers, including bus drivers, cafeteria employees and classroom aides, have tentatively agreed to a contract providing a nearly 15% pay raise over two years.

A larger boost--as much as 20% for some of the lowest paid--would be given to the half of the union’s members who currently receive less than the county living wage.

The agreement with Local 99 of the Service Employees International Union calls for a 6% raise retroactive to July 1, a one-time 1% signing bonus and a 1.8% increase to maintain health and welfare benefits. It would also make permanent a 2% one-time bonus negotiated last year. An additional 4% would be added next year.

The agreement also would set aside funds to allow the lowest-paid union members to borrow $500, interest-free, to buy home computers.

The Board of Education and the union membership must ratify the agreement before it becomes final.

Union officials said ballots will be mailed to members this month and results should be reported to the union’s board of directors Jan. 9.

“It looks like our members are going to be pleased,” said Local 99 negotiator Tom Newbery.

Supt. Roy Romer said he too is happy with the agreement.

“We hope our discussions with the other bargaining units will be settled soon, so we may continue to focus our efforts on improving academic achievement for our students,” Romer said.

In the past, the classified workers have generally bargained for the same raises as the district’s teachers. This year, classified union leaders decided to move ahead of the teachers, knowing that they would probably receive less.

United Teachers-Los Angeles remains deadlocked with the district over the teachers’ demand for an 18.8% raise, including health benefits and last year’s bonus.

Newbery said the classified union had different objectives this year. “Our core issues were to get everybody in a living wage, to get a fair wage across the board and to begin to bridge the digital divide,” he said.

At the high end, the local’s members fall solidly in the middle class, but a cafeteria helper earns only $7.80 an hour, without benefits, for a part-time job, Newbery said.

Over the two years of the contract, all the union’s members will be bumped up to $9.46 an hour, the level established by the county last year as a “living wage.”

For some, that will represent an increase of 20%, Newbery said.