For the 35 years it has been in existence, the Rochester Association of Paraprofessionals (RAP)—currently about 700 members strong—has never had a teacher assistant among its ranks, even though many of them were doing work that qualified them for paraprofessional status. Until now, this is. RAP president Margie Brumfield says that making sure many of her members—well over 200 are qualified, she believes—get that job upgrade has been “her baby” in the few years that she has headed the union.

Last year, for the first time, Brumfield and the union got the superintendent to agree to classify about 40 of her members who worked with autistic students as teaching assistants, but the district wanted only that limited number. RAP worked hard to get the superintendent to agree to greatly expand the total of teaching assistants for the 2006-07 school year, and expects positive results.

From a financial standpoint, the upgrade means an immediate raise of $3 per hour over their current salary. But just as important, it means properly recognizing employees who, in many cases, have been doing the work of a teaching assistant for years.

The strong advocacy for her members on the teaching assistant issue carries over to a general push by Brumfield to make sure Rochester paraprofessionals and their union are known, involved and respected throughout the district. The union has been through some ups and downs in recent years. At one point, the previous leadership broke the union’s ties with the AFT teacher affiliate in the district, but Brumfield and others worked to reaffiliate the union—which is now a separate paraprofessionals union—with the AFT and to restore good relationships with the teachers. “We want all the support we can get from a larger, stronger union,” says Brumfield, who is also a member of the AFT’s PSRP program and policy council and the Education Support Professionals chair of the New York State United Teachers.

“Our members don’t feel like second-class citizens like they once did,” she says. “Whatever the district is involved with, we’re part of that.” Brumfield also likes to repeat something she often tells her members: “We are a stand-alone union, but we don’t stand alone.”

The 2003 law that restored collective bargaining to public employees in New Mexico includes a provision for card-check recognition. The AFT local in Gadsden had filed for recognition by the state labor board with a majority showing of interest through cards. The school district, however, appealed and even established its own labor board to claim jurisdiction. The district also pushed for an election.

Even after the state labor board finally conducted a card count in January and declared the AFT the bargaining agent, the district appealed yet again.

The AFT local, along with the state federation, mounted a community campaign both to elicit support for employees’ right to a voice in the workplace and to expose the high costs the district was incurring through its protracted legal battles. Ultimately, four of the five school board members were recalled, which opened the opportunity for a new board to recognize the union.

Just across the state line from El Paso, Texas, Gadsden is one of the largest school districts in New Mexico.