It was a “membership-driven approach involving the local community” that helped the Eureka Teachers Association (ETA) win a long-sought-after contract settlement, says Patrick Riggs, association president.
Along with local retired teachers, parents, students and other community members, ETA was able to force the school board to ratify a tentative agreement — in the face of Gov. Schwarzenegger’s proposed cuts to K-12 funding — obtaining a 7.2 percent increase over the next three years.
During their previous contract negotiations in 2002-03, ETA members chose to take a cut to their benefits in order to receive a pay increase. During the years from 2003 to early 2008, they received no increase at all.
“We didn’t receive even the slightest adjustment for cost of living during those five years,” says Riggs.
In spring 2007, just before contract negotiations were set to occur between ETA and the district, the interim superintendent declared impasse, which delayed negotiations. ETA members were willing to strike but didn’t want to have to resort to that kind of disruption. Riggs notes that local retired teachers and parents pitched in and picketed outside the school while members were in class. “Support from the community really helped. We knew we had the community behind us, and we also knew that they were pretty upset with the school board and the district over some bonds that were misused,” recalls Riggs. “Money that was meant to be used for work on retrofitting and a new gymnasium went instead to new administrator offices. The whole community was fed up.”
ETA also discovered that Eureka City Schools (ECS) district administrators were the highest-paid in the county.
Says Riggs, “Members were finished with the district balancing the budget on the backs of teachers because of their failure to manage the district’s money responsibly.”
At a pivotal board meeting where the contract would be put to a vote, ETA amassed a showing of 70 percent of their teachers and filled the room with concerned students and parents, along with local Eureka council members Larry Glass and Chris Kerrigan, whose constituents had urged them to support the teachers.
Riggs notes that it was that impressive showing that persuaded the board to vote on behalf of the teachers. “They knew that the community was completely behind us. The next step would have been a petition drive for recall of every board member that voted against what’s good for public schools and students. Getting those petitions signed would have been a slam dunk.”
For Riggs, the grassroots, member-driven strategy of mobilizing the community was one of the keys to their success.
“This was a great example of a local association coming together, setting goals and fulfilling those goals to the very end.”
Dave Earl Carpenter
