L.B. Union, School District Remain in Contract Dispute

The Long Beach School Employees Association — a union representing the public school district’s non-instructional workers from bus drivers to teaching assistants — remains in a contractual dispute with the district that will now enter a new round of negotiations, involving a third party that will conduct an independent investigation and produce a non-binding report.

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LBSEA President William Snow said that the approximately 450 workers he represents have entered their fourth school year without a contract and without pay raises, while during that time every other district union received pay increases, according to the Long Beach Herald.  

LBSEA Vice President Joanne Rea said:

“We are the day-to-day hands-on with the kids, from the minute they get on the buses to when they walk into the school. We’re not looking to get rich, we just want to be able to pay our bills like everyone else.”

Meanwhile, the school district maintains LBSEA was offered a contract that its members rejected in 2010 and the district then withdrew it, according to Superintendent David Weiss. 

Since then the district has been financially restrained, first by an state tax levy cap imposed in 2011-12  — which constrains its expenditures and changes the original offer made to the union — and later by Hurricane Sandy — after which the district still waits for the Federal Emergency Management Agency to determine the amount to reimburse the district for eligible storm-related damages, which leaves the district uncertain about its finances while developing the 2014-15 budget, the Herald reports.