NEWPORT -- The union that represents school support staff took its dispute with the School Department public last night when it held a demonstration outside of a School Committee meeting.
Members of Local 841, of Rhode Island Council 94, rallied to protest how they have been treated by school officials. The union is made up of 140 teacher assistants, secretaries, custodians and maintenance staff.
Their three-year contract expired on June 30, but was extended 12 months because the School Department needed to focus its efforts on the expiring teachers contract. Both sides agree on that. They also agree that the extension called for a so-called reopener to discuss wages for this year.
"We said fine, as long as we are going to discuss wages and not any other issues," said John Vars, the union's senior business agent.
But when the talks got under way on Aug. 16, with a new School Committee and superintendent in place, the school officials began talking about health insurance concessions, Vars said. And when the union objected, Schools Supt. John Ambrogi proposed no salary increase, Vars said.
"We were upset with that," Vars said. "We said that's unacceptable."
Ambrogi said yesterday that the School Department's latest offer was a 2.5 percent wage increase. He confirmed the number only because of erroneous information that had been made public, he said.
He declined to elaborate, saying, "We're not going to talk about negotiations in public."
The Teachers Association Newport recently agreed to raises of 3.25 percent this year and 3.75 percent for the next two years. And for the first time, teachers will share in the cost of their health insurance. They will pay 5 percent of the cost of their premiums the first year, increasing to 7 percent and 10 percent the next two years.
"They were looking for a copay on health. We already do," Vars said.
Part-time workers, he said, pay 50 percent of their premiums. Of the full-time employees, some pay 3 percent of their premiums and others, on a different health plan, pay none, he said. Everyone hired after 1997 pays an annual fixed amount, either $100 for an individual plan or $200 for a family plan.
The union, said Vars, wouldn't entertain any figures because the reopener was supposed to be restricted to wages.
"Both parties gave up something to not enter into negotiations for a full contract," Vars said.
The wages being offered by the School Department are unfair, he said, because other employees have received more and because the members of Local 841 are among the lowest paid. Their average salary is $28,000 a year, according to the union. In addition to the raises of more than 3 percent for teachers, nonunion employees in the department are getting pay hikes of 3 percent to 8 percent, Vars said.
"We are just looking for a fair wage," said Vars.
The School Department's tactics don't bode well for the negotiations that will have to begin soon on a new three-year pact, Vars said. The contract extensions expire June 30.
If talks keep going the way they are going, said Vars, school officials "will really be setting the wrong tone for negotiations. We feel they have no respect for the support staff by the way they are acting right now."
Reporter Richard Salit can be reached at (401) 277-7467 or by e-mail at rsalitATprojo.com.
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