Support workers at Portland Public Schools (PPS) will get no wage increase or cost-of-living adjustment in a new two-year contract between the school district and Portland Federation of School Professionals (PFSP). With the cost of living rising just over 2 percent a year, the 1,200 workers are likely to fall behind economically. They’ll also have to pay more out of pocket for health insurance. The district agreed to increase its monthly health insurance contribution by $50 in 2013, to $1,026 a month. But costs for the district’s self-insured health trust are expected to increase more than that amount — and that’s AFTER a reduction in benefits.
“Our members are just thankful to have jobs,” said PFSP president Belinda Reagan. “Our group has been so hard hit by layoffs.”
PFSP numbered 1,400 several years ago, but 130 members were laid off in summer 2010, and 60 in summer 2011, in what Reagan, a former library assistant at Fernwood Middle School, described as an annual ordeal of “un-assignments.”
“We’re seeing clerical workers, some of whom have been with district 25 years, laid off,” Reagan said, “and that’s very frightening for people.”
The tentative agreement was announced Jan. 9, after nearly a year of bargaining. It covers the 2011-12 and 2012-13 school years. Members voted to approve the contract Jan. 11, and the school board will ratify it at a later date.
PPS Superintendent Carole Smith, in the district’s press statement, said the contract is “grounded in the reality that we all must make sacrifices in order to maintain the maximum number of staff in our schools who support students.”
PFSP — formerly known as Portland Federation of Teachers and Classified Employees — is Local 111 of the American Federation of Teachers. Chartered in 1919, it’s the AFT’s oldest affiliate of west of the Mississippi River. It represents PPS workers in about 60 occupational classifications, the most numerous of which are paraeducators (450 employees) and school clerical staff. Paraeducators — special education teacher assistants — are paid $14.04 to $19.45 an hour.
The new contract is retroactive to July 1, 2011. The previous four-year agreement contained some cost-of-living increases and some step increases. Step increases — which reward workers for longevity as they move up a pay scale — used to be automatic, but now must be bargained for.
Still, Reagan said, district negotiator Brock Logan bargained fairly. Non-represented employees have had no raises either, including PPS Superintendent Smith, who has had no raise since she began in 2007, though she does make $190,000 a year. Logan, a former negotiator for AFSCME Council 2 in Washington, went to work as PPS’ director of labor relations in March 2010. Having little to offer in economic issues, the district agreed to some union proposals that don’t have an economic impact, including rules that give workers more vacation time sooner than they do now.
Reagan said members are likely to demand pay increases in the next contract.
