Dearborn School District, Noninstructional Union Ink Agreement

After several weeks of negotiating, a proposed labor agreement between Dearborn Public Schools and its second-largest union was finalized Monday with a unanimous vote in support from the Board of Education at their regularly scheduled board meeting.

The union membership–which includes noninstructional, nonsupervisory staff such as food service, clerical, transportation, maintenance, custodial and paraprofessional workers–voted 397-127 to ratify the five-year deal Sunday night.

The agreement contains wage cuts and a provision that will create a fixed-cost health care trust, and is in many ways a sign of the times at the 18,500-student school system.

“It’s a tough contract because I don’t think people expect to take cuts over and over again,” said Supt. Brian Whiston after the meeting. “But it’s better to have some jobs security, and to take some cuts, instead of having layoffs, which are a 100-percent hit.”

The wage cuts also come after 57 paraprofessionals were in August, a blow to DFSE.

Rodger Bartles, the president of the 1,100-member DFSE, said the agreement was the best that could be expected given the district’s financial situation.

“It provides jobs security for our membership,” he said. “That’s what we were looking for.”

The contract also means union members will be protected from privatization efforts that have taken place at other area districts.

Tie to State Dollars

In the contract, which will run from 2011 to 2016, employees will take a 3.3 percent pay cut for the first year, and a 2.1 percent reduction in the second year, unless state per-pupil funding rate is increased.

In the remaining three years of the contract, wages would rise and fall based on changes in per-pupil funding, but would be capped at 2.1 percent for reductions.

The tie to state funds was something the district wanted; the negotiating team also requested that the 1,200 members of the Dearborn Federation of Teachers accept the same deal, but that effort was headed off by the time that union reached an agreement earlier this year.

Additionally, the contract will implement a health care trust, which will be managed by the local union. Bartles said the trust is similar to the one . The trust is an employee-based pool focused on the health of its members that is financed by a fixed contribution from the district, effectively shielding the district from escalating costs over the life of the agreement.

For the teacher’s trust, the district will provide a fixed amount of $997 per employee, per month, to the union. That amount will eventually increase by 7 percent.

Bartles could not provide the amount the district will pay into the DFSE trust on a per-month basis Monday night, but said it is in the contract.