School union closes in on health insurance fix

Friday, March 21, 2003 | 9:55 a.m.

Officials with the Education Support Employees Association, representing the Clark County School District, say they have resolved all but about $1 million of nearly $9 million in medical claims left unpaid after the failure of the union's health insurance trust.

"We now have sufficient funds to bring successful closure to this long and difficult journey that we have dedicated ourselves to completing," said Doug McCain, ESEA president.

The ESEA, which represents just over half of the district's custodians, office staff, food service workers and bus drivers, has faltered in the three years since the health trust collapsed.

The union is currently locked in a fierce court battle with Teamsters Local 14 over whether the district's 8,300 support workers will be given the opportunity to vote for which organization they want to represent them.

The Teamsters have been waging an aggressive campaign to win over the workers, and in September the county's labor board ruled a vote should take place. But the ESEA challenged the order and filed suit to stop the vote, and now the court proceedings are expected to last at least until early summer, said Kathy Naumann, Teamsters campaign coordinator.

"If the ESEA is fighting this hard to prevent a simple majority vote, that says a lot right there about what they expect in terms of support from their own members," Naumann said Thursday.

The announcement that most of the union's medical debts have been cleared is "too little too late,"said bus driver Jackie Baffa.

"It doesn't change the fact that they've done a lousy job and they haven't been there for us when we've needed them," said Baffa.

Baffa said she was on the brink of bankruptcy after her daughter was injured in a serious car wreck and the doctors' bills piled up.

Eventually Baffa's daughter used her insurance settlement money to pay the debt, saving the family's house from foreclosure, she said. That money has never been reimbursed by ESEA, Baffa said.

"That money was supposed to get my daughter to college," Baffa said. "Now she knows it's long gone and she'll never see a dime, thanks to (ESEA executive director) Joe Furtado and (past president) Bobby Mancuso."

In order to be recognized by the School District for collective bargaining, a union must show its membership consists of at least 50 percent of eligible employees plus one person. ESEA currently counts 56 of the district's support workers as members.