School district workers to vote on union representation

By Emily Richmond (contact)

Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2002 | 9:53 a.m.

The Clark County School District's office personnel, janitors, bus drivers and food service workers will get the opportunity to choose which union should represent them -- either the current organization or Teamsters Local 14.

The Teamsters are attempting to move in on the struggling Education Support Employees Association, which represents about 56 percent of the 8,000 district workers.

The association has been plagued with problems in recent years, including the failure of its health trust. Workers were left with medical bills and debt reaching more than $7 million when the trust dissolved in September 2001.

The Teamsters Union, which has been campaigning for a vote, took the matter to the Nevada Local Government Employee Management Relations Board. Following three days of hearings, the board issued an order Tuesday that the elections should be held. According to the board's order, both unions agreed that the support employees had reason to be "legitimately upset, dissatisfied and/or disgruntled with ESEA's representation."

The elections must take place within 30 days, according to the order.

Word of the board's decision spread rapidly Tuesday through the ranks of both unions and district employees.

"This is the best news I've heard in a long time," said Jackie Baffa, a district bus driver who was forced to the brink of bankruptcy when her teenage daughter's medical bills went unpaid following a serious car wreck.

"People are fed up. Enough is enough."

Baffa ended up having to use her daughter's settlement money to pay the outstanding bills, otherwise the family's house would have been seized, she said.

Doug McCain, president of the association, said he was meeting with advisors today to discuss how the board's decision would be handled.

"I'm confident we have the majority support from the unit," McCain said this morning. "But I guess if we go to a vote, we'll find out for sure."

The ESEA has done a good job representing its workers, and the failure of the health trust was due to extenuating circumstances, McCain said.

Teamsters have campaigned for the vote for more than a year, said Julie "Gina" Greisen, a Teamsters trustee and candidate for the Clark County School Board.

In order to be recognized by the School District for contract negotiations, a union must show its membership makes up at least 50 percent plus one person. Greisen said she was confident the Teamsters would be able to meet the requirement.