The solidarity teachers demonstrated as they prepared for a possible strike in Silicon Valley's Campbell Union High School District has won a settlement of their contract battle.
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Campbell Education Association co-Presidents Rachelle Burnside (left) and Lynette Jackson (center) rally the troops outside a school board meeting. |
The 300-member Campbell Education Association ended the 30-month struggle with a marathon negotiating session that ended in an agreement with the district. Teachers in the chapter work at six high schools serving 7,200 students in San Jose, Campbell and Saratoga.
The new two-year contract includes major improvements in health benefits and a 2.87 percent raise retroactive to Sept. 1, 2001.
A new round of bargaining begins in mid-October for the current school year, which wasn't covered by the settlement. Teachers remain united and will work for quick resolution of the differences, says CEA Co-President Rachelle Burnside, a teacher at Branham High in San Jose.
"It was the support of the members that helped bring about the contract settlement," she says. "We did our homework. We didn't want to strike this time, but we were ready and willing."
On Aug. 26, teachers voted by 83 percent to authorize their chapter leaders to call a strike at any time. The decision got the district's attention after months of indifference.
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In a room packed with angry teachers, Burnside addresses the board. |
As they mobilized, teachers alerted the media, which covered their strike authorization vote, their news conference for the opening of a strike headquarters, and their rallies at the district office. They also organized parents, who joined teachers in speaking out at a packed school board meeting Sept. 4.
The settlement did not address the district's huge class size problems, but teachers plan to pursue the matter in future negotiations. At one teacher rally before the settlement, the chapter's other co-president, Lynette Jackson, warned that the district "has made no effort" to work on the class size crisis.
"Instead, they have overloaded our classrooms to the point where it has not only become an educational issue, but a safety issue as well," says Jackson, a teacher at Leigh High in San Jose.
Teachers were seeking a 32-student cap on class sizes in the district, where classrooms with 40 students or more this year are not uncommon, says Bob Nichols, a teacher at the district's Prospect High in Saratoga and a member of the CTA Board of Directors.
"So many of these classrooms are just packed," he says.
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Campbell teachers walk the picket lines. |
The new contract, which covers the 2001-03 school years, increases starting salaries to $41,307 for beginning teachers and $79,460 for veteran teachers with at least 32 years of experience and a master's degree.
The settlement's reinstatement of a "floating cap" regarding the amount of money the district will now spend on health benefits is a significant victory for educators already coping with the high cost of living in Silicon Valley. It was one of the major reasons teachers authorized the CEA to call a strike if an agreement could not be reached, says Burnside.
"The improvements on health benefits represent a major victory for teachers, who were fed up with having to pay so much of their own money for insurance," she says. "For this district to be able to recruit and retain teachers, it had to increase salaries and benefits. We are now on the way to making both more attractive."
Without the new settlement, teachers would have had to pay $2,832 of their own money for Kaiser family coverage or $3,137 for Blue Shield family coverage in calendar year 2004. Now, they will not have to pay anything out of pocket for either plan.
As of Jan. 1, 2004, the district will also provide domestic partner health coverage.
"This settlement is a good start," says Burnside. "But we have more progress to make."
Mike Myslinski
