When the Colorado classified school Employees Association (CCSEA) decided it was time to affiliate with a national union, the group's leaders picked the AFT as the obvious choice. After the group's board recommended the affiliation, the members unanimously approved that decision at a special meeting in September.

"The more we got involved with the AFT, the more we knew it was the right decision," says Wayne Scott, CCSEA's executive director. In addition to collaborating with the AFT through the American Association of Classified School Employees, a national group the AFT affiliated with last year, the Colorado group had worked closely with the AFT-affiliated Denver Federation for Paraprofessionals. The Colorado groups organized a conference, worked to fend off privatization and shared office space.

Scott, whose group has more than 700 members and represents close to 2,000 PSRPs in 11 districts, says the idea behind the affiliation is not simply that bigger is better. Specifically, it means more resources for research, communication, membership benefits and organizing, to mention a few. The bottom line, Scott says, is that "we want to get bigger because we want to be more effective and have a stronger voice in our state capital." His members and other public employees in Colorado have faced a series of potentially harmful legislative proposals in recent years, and they want to be able not only to defeat the bad ones but also to push for positive changes, such as summer unemployment benefits for PSRPs.

Colorado also presents significant opportunities for PSRP membership growth, both in the places where the AFT and the CCSEA already represent members, as well as various districts in the state where many PSRPs are not organized. An AFT-led statewide organizing project is being built, and Scott definitely can see his members helping out as volunteer organizers.

The Colorado affiliation comes less than a year after the Nevada Classified School Employees Association also voted to join the AFT.

In addition to the Colorado union, other smaller PSRP groups around the country have voted for the AFT as their union in recent months. In September, members of the Oyster River (N.H.) Paraprofessionals, Aides and Food Service voted 55 to 3 for the AFT; the group represents 106 employees. Also in September, a unit of 40 support staff and teacher aides who work at the American School for the Deaf in West Hartford, Conn., voted 30 to 6 to be represented by the AFT through an existing local, the West Hartford Federation of Dorm Supervisors.