A record crowd of more than 1,000 paraprofessionals and school-related personnel--almost half of them first-timers--converged on Las Vegas in March for the AFT's 24th annual PSRP conference.

Two general sessions and many of the conference workshops focused on the conference theme of Balancing Work and Home: Unions Supporting Members. Kicking off the gathering and introducing the theme, AFT PSRP leader Lorretta Johnson said, "We all want more money and need more money, but we want other things as well," including respect, recognition and--equally important--relief from the various sources of stress and tension on the job. "Our members expect their unions to get them these things," said Johnson, who chairs the AFT's national PSRP program and policy council.

Johnson also addressed the current status of the PSRP division, as she does every year during the conference. The division continued its growth to the point where the AFT now represents 210,000 school and college support staff around the country, she said. The union won representation elections in five states and chartered 68 new locals with PSRP members, many of them in the recently merged (with the National Education Association) states of Florida and Montana. While formal merger discussions with the NEA are off for now, Johnson reported that the two national unions have established a joint partnership to work together on such vital issues as school safety, standards in education and federal education initiatives.

To help set the stage for the conference theme, the AFT commissioned Peter Hart Research Associates to conduct a survey of PSRP members on work and family issues. Pollster Geoff Garin presented the findings during the opening session. While members generally "feel pretty good about their jobs," Garin said, salaries are an obvious area where they see need for improvement. While not a direct source of job-related stress, sub-par salaries are clearly a widespread problem. "But it's not just about money," he added, echoing Johnson's comments. "It's about what goes on at work all day long."

Among the sources of stress for PSRPs, the survey found, are inadequate staffing/excessive workload, lack of support and children's behavior (obviously for those who work with children). The highest levels of stress were reported by women (32 percent), higher education employees (43 percent) and those in secretarial-clerical jobs (39 percent).

In a general session on bargaining and legislative strategies for balancing work and home, AFT vice president Louise Sundin, president of the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers and Education Assistants, talked about the strong contrast in attitudes between younger and more veteran members. "As union leaders, you have a lot of different interests to look after," she said, adding that the interests of different generations of members can clash, both on the job and in the union. Newer members, in particular, expect their unions to do more than just focus on salaries; they want their unions to support their desire for a healthy balance between their work life and their home life.

Netsy Firestein, who directs the Labor Project for Working Families and who has worked with many unions to craft family-friendly contract language, discussed the need for unions to serve as the voice in society for expanding and improving policies that help working families. Child care, elder care, family leave and flexible schedules are among the topics for which unions should be "setting the standard for the rest of the country."

In a luncheon address, AFT secretary-treasurer Edward J. McElroy emphasized how important it is for union members--who are relatively better off when it comes to benefits such as health insurance--to get involved in politics and help maintain a better standard of living for American workers as a whole. "Do we really want to be a country with millions and millions of kids without health care?" McElroy asked. He pointed out that unions have spent a lot of time at the bargaining table in recent years trying to hang on to the advances they've made, but if the rest of the country is moving backward on things like health care and pensions, unions will have an even tougher time maintaining what they have.

Making a comparison between Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush--both seemingly "nice guys"--McElroy reminded attendees that it took 20 years for working Americans to make up for the damage done by Reagan's policies. If we don't get involved in politics, he warned, "we could be spending the next 20 years trying to climb back to where we have been the last six or eight years" under a friendly White House.

Conference-goers also heard from AFT executive vice president Nat LaCour, who commented on how hard it is for PSRPs to get state legislators to address the needs of all school staff in addition to teachers. LaCour discussed some of the recommendations from the AFT's Futures II report, adopted by delegates at last summer's convention. The report called for a reinvigorated "culture of organizing" throughout the AFT. While the AFT has ranked among the top five national unions for membership growth over the past decade, LaCour said, huge opportunities exist, including 400,000 PSRPs working in schools, and another 300,000 higher education support staff, who are not represented by unions. The AFT has set up an executive council organizing committee, which includes PSRP representatives, to come up with organizing recommendations and strategies.
 

David Gray wins Shanker PSRP pioneer award

David Gray, president of the Oklahoma City Federation of Classified Employees, received this year's Albert Shanker Pioneer Award, given annually during the conference to honor an outstanding AFT PSRP leader. Gray, who is also an AFT national vice president as well as a board member of various state labor and civil rights organizations, has a long history of advocating for the members in his union as well as AFT's classified employee members overall. His local in Oklahoma City has fought off privatization challenges and won salary and benefit increases, all while growing in membership. Gray was also responsible for getting non-classroom PSRPs--such as bus drivers, food service workers, secretaries and custodians--included in the AFT's Educational Research and Dissemination (ER&D) program. The first ER&D training module for non-instructional staff focused on student discipline. For the second year, the pioneer award included a $10,000 cash bonus, donated by Chicago investment banker Chris Gardner. The recipient gets half, and the other half is to be used for a local school or community project. Gardner's firm also donates $10,000 for the National Education Association's" Educational Support Person of the Year" award. This year's NEA recipient was Irma Valdespino, an educational assistant who heads the merged AFT-NEA Las Cruces (N.M.) Classified School Employees Council.