Douglas county classifieds join district’s teachers under
AFT umbrella

The AFT'S PSRP division scored one of its biggest organizing wins in the past few years when classified employees in Douglas County, Colo., voted in June to be represented by what will be called the Douglas County Federation of Classified Employees.

While the AFT has long been the bargaining agent for teachers in the fast-growing suburb of Denver, it took a new superintendent to open the door for similar rights for the more than 2,000 PSRPs in the district. The AFT had hoped for an easy campaign, but it didn’t turn out that way after some veteran human resources staff worked to oppose the organizing effort. It was difficult to challenge the anti-union campaign because that could risk the support of the superintendent and some friendly school board members, says AFT national representative Barbara Pallazzo, who coordinated the campaign. In the end, the vote was 576 for AFT and 378 for no representative.

While pay and benefits are a concern of Douglas County PSRPs, as they are in virtually every district, issues related to due process, just-cause dismissal and a formal grievance procedure were even more important during the campaign. With the campaign behind them, attention now turns to recruiting new members and putting together a first contract. While the campaign received lots of support from the Douglas County Federation of Teachers as well as AFT Colorado and its affiliates, Pallazzo credited PSRP organizer Judy Fell and Douglas County teacher Brenda Munzert, a union officer on release time to work on the campaign, for their stellar work in contributing to the victory.