In mid-July, some Lakewood school district employees were notified by phone that either their days or hours had been cut or that their job had been eliminated. Some employees listened to these messages on answering machines, some were voice messages and a few were actually left with non-employee family members.

The District initially said they did not feel that they had an obligation to bargain the impacts of their cuts. This came as a rude surprise to some PSE classified employees who had been part of the budget committee, and attended all the meetings during the late winter and spring. When school ended they had come up with several recommendations that were to go to the school board, but none of their recommendations included the cuts that were announced.

PSE leaders immediately scrambled to pull chapter boards together and sought a meeting with District officials. Right away, PSE let the District know:

    1.  We intended to submit an official Demand to Bargain notice over any proposed budget cuts; and
    2.  We would be filing grievances for the contract being blatantly ignored.

A phone call to the District attorney quickly resulted in a change of direction. Soon after, District administrators and both PSE bargaining units began negotiating the impacts of the budget reductions. We won some of the battles and we lost some others. By the time the dust settled, employees were angry, hurt, stressed, and felt they had been disrespected by the way the proposed cuts had been communicated to them.

A chapter meeting in September drew nearly 60 members. Members brainstormed ideas on what they could do to let the District and school board know how unhappy they were. Union members spent over two hours coming up with a plan of action, including a follow-up meeting, deciding who would stand up and speak, what they would speak about and making sure they stressed the safety of students being compromised.

At the next school board meeting, there was representation from every bargaining group present, including paraeducators, custodial, food service, office personnel, maintenance, nurses, specialists, transportation and ECEAP. Eight members from different classifications spoke eloquently about the cuts that happened and the impact on students and the low morale of the classified staff and the distrust that has replaced the trust they had in administrators.

The next day, Superintendent Haddock e-mailed PSE chapter leaders with an apology and said that both the Board and he heard us. He pledged to sit down with us to go over all the concerns and the safety issues will be addressed.

“I was so impressed with how the Lakewood chapters took the initiative to get organized and take the action that was needed to protect jobs and work hours,” said PSE Field Representative Janell Silves.