Two new classified locals join the AFT, with more likely to follow

New AFT organizing project targeting PSRPs in Utah is paying off, winning bargaining rights for employees in two districts and working toward similar results in a half dozen others.

As a right-to-work state, Utah has some unusual labor laws. In a few districts, the employee group that signs up at least half the unit by a specific date wins bargaining rights, even if another union was the representative the previous year. The independent Utah School Employees Association (USEA) has been losing members rapidly, and AFT efforts to reach a no-raid agreement with the association stopped after USEA dropped out of the American Association of Classified School Employees.

That opened the door for the AFT to take over the bargaining rights for a unit of about 100 school bus drivers and bus assistants in Salt Lake City. Also last year, the AFT won a close election to represent a large group of PSRPs in the Washington County school district.

AFT national representative Pat Denslow Kilroy, who is running the organizing project, says that resources from the national AFT have been very helpful. An AFT staffer, for example, provided training on health and safety, including the dangers associated with diesel fuel, at the Salt Lake schools bus barn. AFT-Utah also will participate in the AFT’s membership service specialist program, which provides financial assistance for a current PSRP member to work part-time on classified employee issues for the state federation.

While the Salt Lake City drivers and bus assistants had a solid relationship with their managers, they were very dissatisfied with the representation they were getting from their previous union, says Becky Stires, the AFT local’s vice president and a force behind bringing the group into the AFT last year. USEA “didn’t do anything for us,” she says, adding that “everybody here is just ecstatic” about their new relationship with the AFT.

In seeking to expand the AFT’s reach to other classified employees in Utah, Kilroy has used a range of labor resources. One project organizer, Bill  Todarello, is a former AFT local leader from Nevada. In addition, the state AFL-CIO has helped, and AFT classified members—including a group of Salt Lake drivers—have spoken to colleagues in other districts about the benefits of AFT membership.

“Because we’re new in the state, we want to create some model locals” with high membership, good leaders and local programs, Kilroy says. “That way, prospective members can go and see what the AFT in Utah looks like for classified employees.”