MASS PARAPROFESSIONALS WIN BIG
BACK-PAY AWARD

The AFT’s paraprofessional local in Lawrence, Mass., won a big victory recently when an arbitrator ruled that 85 members who had been tutoring students should receive $1.1 million in back pay.

The Lawrence Federation of Paraprofessionals’ contract has long included a provision that instructional assistants who perform duties beyond their usual jobs—such as tutoring small groups in reading, as the district had them do—should be paid the same amount as others doing the same work. Teachers’ average salaries in the district, for example, top $52,000, while the average paraprofessional salary is a little under $18,000.

The union fought for three years to win the favorable decision. “The school department knew they were violating the contract when they did this,” says local president Lucia Nicolosi. “Everybody is really angry, and they feel like they treated us like second-class citizens.”

They’re even more angry, she adds, that the district has appealed the arbritrator’s decision, so none of the back pay can be distributed yet. “There is no doubt that we will win,” Nicolosi declares.

ILLINOIS STAFF BACK AT WORK AFTER WEEK-LONG STRIKE

Teachers and support staff in Farmington, Ill., were back at work Sept. 19 after ratifying a new contract that brought an end to a week-long strike in the 1,500-student school district near Peoria. Members of the Farmington Federation of Integrated Support Staff and Teachers walked off the job Sept. 12—the first such job action in the local’s history—after overwhelmingly rejecting the school board’s final contract offer. The local represents approximately 100 school employees.

The pact addresses two of the main issues that prompted the strike. The district agreed to limit the contract to three years, as the union had wanted, and also agreed to 3 percent annual raises for all staff. The district had proposed raises of barely 1 percent for some staff. The union won some concessions on the issue of retirement incentives, but the board would not agree to an extra year of incentives the union had pushed for.

“The 3 percent across the board for us was a very big win,” says Illinois Federation of Teachers field representative Lisa Uphoff, who works with the local. As with many strikes, the job action left union members feeling both energized and angered by some of the school district’s actions, Uphoff noted. “The teachers and support staff have a new unity and solidarity among them, and it will show in the classroom.”

UFT CONTRACT AGREEMENT INCLUDES GAINS FOR PARAS

After working for two-and-a-half years without a contract, educators in New York City have a new tentative contract. In early October, the United Federation of Teachers reached an agreement with the city. In addition to generous pay increases for members over the course of 52 months, it includes a new bachelor’s degree salary line for paraprofessionals. With the new salary line, as of October 2006, paraprofessionals with a bachelor’s degree will earn at least $32,250, up from the current maximum of $27,746.

A panel of independent fact-finders had recommended that all UFT-represented educators get a pay increase of 11.4 percent compounded over 37 months in exchange for 10 more minutes of tutoring and more discretion for principals in hiring and assignments. The panel rejected the city’s push for an additional teaching period, the end of tenure and layoff of excessed teachers.

The settlement also includes important changes that benefit nurses, psychologists, social workers, and occupational and physical therapists. A workload dispute process that was established for school secretaries and guidance counselors in the previous contract will now be extended to psychologists and social workers.

As the AFT’s largest affiliate, the UFT represents more than 90,000 teachers, paraprofessionals, school secretaries, guidance counselors and other school employees. The ratification vote on the new contract was slated to be tallied in early November.