The Monroe County Community School Corporation has rescinded a resolution calling for what custodians and other non-teacher employees said would have limited their collective bargaining rights.
The Monroe County Education Association (MCEA) and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (ASME) currently have separate collective bargaining agreements with the corporation. While MCEA bargains salaries and benefits, ASME bargains working conditions and related topics, such as work hours, paid time off and sick and personal leave.
At the last board meeting, board members introduced a resolution that aimed to align the bargaining rights of teachers and classified operations employees. Some board members had qualms on the resolution but also acknowledged the extra time it takes to negotiate separate bargaining agreements.
Ron Richmond, executive director of ASME Council 962 of Indiana and Kentucky, said changing bargaining status would limit the rights of classified operations employees. Instead of having the flexibility to bargain working conditions in general, they’d be limited to bargaining salaries and wage-related benefits.
“We don't move forward by shrinking our position that we bargained from, and to have lesser bargaining rights in the eyes of our members was to have lesser power, lesser voice,” he said. “…There's really no need to take us steps backwards to protect us when everything that we have already at our disposal is designed to protect us.”
Richmond said communication from the corporation was initially slow, but after the last board meeting, he met with the administration to talk through the union’s concerns. He got a call from Superintendent Markay Winston Monday telling him they’d rescinded the resolution.
“The superintendent was very gracious and understanding of that in the conversation I had with her,” he said. “I think, like she shared with me, her belief was she really did not anticipate that this was going to be received the way it was by our members, but she was very receptive to our conversations.”
Richmond said amid state cuts to education and attacks to teachers’ rights at the state level, he found it important to fight to keep his union’s rights intact.
“I believe teachers have been grossly mistreated by some of the actions that are happening in Indianapolis at the State House, and it's unfair to them,” he said. “But when the action was directed towards us, our belief is two wrongs don't make a right. The district’s intent was to, in their mind, give some equity and some parity between the two groups. But you know, teachers and the classified staff are not the same.”
