Placentia Yorba Linda California School Employees Association

Hello CSEA Placentia-Yorba Linda Chapter 293 Members,                                                  

I hope this communication finds you well and healthy. I’m reaching out to update you on the completion of COVID-19 impacts and effects negotiations. CSEA’s Placentia-Yorba Linda Chapter 293 Negotiations Team has been bargaining with the District since March 13^th in pursuit of securing an agreement that provided safety, pay, and leave protections as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent school closures. It is my pleasure to bring you all the attached Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). The MOU provides assurances to members regarding their pay, leave accruals, work assignments, and job security through the end of the fiscal year. Highlights of the MOU include the following:

1.  Commitments from the District to implement preventive measures to help combat the spread of COVID-19, such as social distancing and the allocation of personal protective equipment (PPE) for those members that are required to report to work.

2. Pay of time and a half for all Nutrition Service employees that have been directed to report to work.

3. The ability to self-quarantine at no loss of leave time or pay for members that are high risk for serious illness, or who live with or are caring for family members that are high risk for serious illness, should they contract COVID-19.

4. Commitment from the District that no member will suffer any loss of pay as it relates to their permanent assignment during the school closure period.

5. Commitments from the District regarding remote work, which include a requirement that remote work only be performed during a member’s normal work hours and that the District provide the necessary materials and training to those members that are directed to engage in remote work.

We appreciate all of our member’s support though these stressful times and these intense negotiations. We also appreciate the members that expressed their willingness to help us fight to secure an agreement. While our Negotiations Team was successful in securing an agreement at the bargaining table this time, it is very likely your support may be needed as we gear up to head back to negotiate our 2019-2020 successor contract in the coming weeks and begin to talk about compensation for all unit members. We will keep you up to date on this.

CSEA’s State Executive Board’s Wavier 1 for Policy 610 has eliminated membership ratification requirements for COVID-19 specific agreements as it is not possible to congregate to vote in accordance with our constitution and bylaws requirements at this time due to the various governmental orders. As such, this MOU has been submitted to CSEA’s Orange Field Office’s Director for Policy 610 approval and ratified by the Placentia-Yorba Linda Chapter 293’s Executive Board at direction of the CSEA’s State Executive Board and our local Field Director.

Should you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to me (Job Suarez, 714-681-3095 or  suarezbrats@gmail.com), your First Vice President (Chris Lawyer, 714-615-0896 or ctdk@sbcglobal.net), or our Labor Rep (Anthony Solis at 714-532-3766 ext 7126 or asolis@csea.com). Thank you!

In Unity,                                                                  

Job Suarez                                                                              

CSEA Placentia-Yorba Linda Chapter 293 President

COVID-19 MOU signed

2020 CSEA Scholarship application – member

2020 CSEA Scholarship application – dependent

April 2020 Newsletter

Hello All,

CSEA Placentia-Yorba Linda Chapter 293 would like to take some time to update you on the negotiations that are taking place. 

COVID-19 Impacts and Effects Negotiations

While all employees will remain in paid status through the school closure period and nothing has changed on that piece, CSEA has been negotiating with the District on the impacts and effects of COVID-19 and the subsequent school closures for over a month now. These negotiations have been taking place so that the parties can memorialize agreements on things like pay during school closures, COVID-19 related leaves request, evaluations during the school closure period, safety measures and equipment for employees that are reporting to work during the closure period, etc.

There has been significant progress made and agreements reached on most of CSEA’s issues as they relate to the COVID-19 impact and effects negotiations. The last outstanding issue that we are in a fight with Management over is some form of supplemental pay (hazard pay) for those employees that are still reporting to work and in many instances, still interacting with staff, students, parents, and the public. These employees are being directed by Management to perform tasks that by their nature, potentially expose them to COVID-19. Because these employees cannot refuse to do the work they are being directed to do, CSEA has asked the District to compensate these employees for the dangerous conditions Management is putting them in.

In saddens me to tell you that our District doesn’t care about the danger that these employees are facing every day. Management has denied all of CSEA’s proposal for supplemental pay for this group. What makes this even more upsetting is how dismissive Management has been about the essential work classified employees are doing. Management has actually stated at the negotiating table that the teachers group and management group were doing the same work our unit members were doing. This statement made it clear that Management doesn’t care about the fact that they are putting classified employees, many of which make low wages and have no District provided health benefits, in harm’s way. They see it as business as usual.

This is something CSEA is not going to accept. We will keep fighting to ensure our most vulnerable employees are taken care of by this District! But we may need your help in this fight. CSEA will potentially be launching an organizing campaign in which we will be asking our unit members to email School Board Members about the way management is treating those employees that are out there working on the front line. If you would like to help us and your co-workers, please go to our webpage following the link below so that we can get your personal email address and provide you with more information on our organizing campaign. We will have another update for you on these negotiations by the end of the week.

2019-2020 Contract Negotiations

CSEA has been negotiating a new three (3) year contract for nearly a year now. We were extremely close to wrapping up negotiations when the school closures happened. We are happy to report that we are heading back to the negotiation table on May 7^th and May 11^th with hopes of reaching an overall contract agreement very soon. More information will follow our early May negotiation sessions.

Thank you!