School support workers’ pact OK’d

By Emily Richmond

Thursday, Oct. 16, 2003 | 9:48 a.m.

The Clark County School Board voted Wednesday to approve a new contract for support employees, which means the district now has four-year contracts with all three major bargaining groups, George Ann Rice, associate superintendent of human resources, said.

The Education Support Employees Association, representing about 5,000 of the district's 8,000 bus drivers, food service workers, custodians and office personnel, ratified the contract Tuesday by a vote of 277-26.

Earlier this fall the board approved four-year contracts for the Clark County Education Association, representing the majority of the district's 15,000 teachers, as well as the administrator's association.

Rice said this may be the first time four-year contracts have been secured for teachers, support staff and administrators at the same time. A new negotiation technique, known as interest-based bargaining, gets the credit, Rice said.

While traditional collective bargaining methods rely on two parties declaring their demands from the outset and then negotiating, interest-based bargaining involves making decisions by consensus from both sides. A mediator, provided free of charge by a federal agency promoting the technique, oversees the process.

"I don't believe it would have been possible without it," Rice said Wednesday. "We have a new spirit of cooperation that's going to be a benefit to the district for years to come."

Joe Furtado, executive director of the support employees union, said this morning interest-based bargaining required significant commitment from both sides in order to work.

In the past it's been commonplace for many unions in Clark County to hold the requisite four negotiating sessions and then declare an impasse, forcing arbitration, Furtado said. For the latest contract the support employees met with the school district 16 times, Furtado said.

"Under the old model you'd say, 'This is what we want,' and the other side would say 'So what,"' Furtado said. "Now we say, 'How can we address those concerns without hurting ourselves too much?"'

The new contract maintains employees' ability to cash out unused vacation time and increases district contributions for health care, Furtado said.

Having four-year contracts for nearly all employees will save the district time and money, Walt Rulffes, deputy superintendent of operations, said. It will also make it easier for the district to budget for personnel -- the district's top expense -- for the coming years, Rulffes said.

"The biggest plus will be labor harmony," Rulffes said. "Instead of worrying about the instability that comes with frequent arbitration, we can focus on educating children."