Placentia Yorba Linda California School Employees Association

Hello Everyone,

CSEA met with PYLUSD to resume negotiations for our 2019-2020 successor contract. The only items outstanding in these negotiations is a salary increase.

CSEA was the only party to pass a salary increase proposal at today’s meeting. While PYLUSD didn’t counter CSEA, the fact that they didn’t flat out dismiss CSEA’s salary increase proposal leaves our negotiations team optimistic that we may end up getting PYLUSD to actually consider providing a salary increase to our unit members.

We meet again Thursday December 3^rd.We would like to ask that all CSEA members wear blue on December 3rd to show solidarity amongst each other and to show support for your CSEA negotiating team as they make one more final push to bring a salary increase back to all PYLUSD classified employees. We’ll have another update for you following the December 3^rd negotiation session. Thank you for your continued patience and support!

Job Suarez

CSEA 293 President

PLEASE TAKE A MOMENT TO READ THE FOLLOWING NEGOTIATIONS UPDATE

Hello CSEA Placentia-Yorba Chapter 293 Members,

This communication is being sent to you in regards to CSEA’s negotiations with PYLUSD for the 2019-2020 successor contract negotiations, which the parties are still negotiating. For your information, the parties have been attempting to negotiate a new three (3) year contract since May of 2019. Since July 1, 2019, we have been working without a contract with PYLUSD. Negotiating a new contract is always a big task for the parties however, these negotiations have taken longer than CSEA would have liked. These negotiations have been protracted by COVID-19, layoffs, and many other things that have demanded both CSEA and PYLUSD’s attention. However, we are at the end of these negotiations now and only have a wage increase to discuss. Prior to the initial COVID-19 school closures back in March, the parties were extremely close to wrapping these negotiations up and CSEA believed there was going to be some sort of wage increase offered to unit members. Upon the onset of the pandemic, PYLUSD sold furlough days to our teachers and tried to do the same with us using projected state budget cuts as a motivator. But when the state announced there would be no budget cuts for this school year and that school districts would be fully funded and be held harmless for any attendance loss, CSEA not only successfully refused PYLUSD’s proposed furloughs, but we pivoted to demand that our members receive a wage increase for the 2019-2020 school year.

PYLUSD has said NO to all of the wage increase proposals CSEA has made on your behalf. PYLUSD has stated that offering classified (CSEA) a wage increase would be difficult as both the Teachers (APLE) and Management (PLUM) have already accepted no wage increase for the 2019-2020 school year. PYLUSD has also stated that COVID-19 and the economic uncertainty associated with the pandemic are reasons why they cannot offer a wage increase to employees at this time. PYLUSD has argued that its response to the pandemic and the state and federal governments’ lack thereof, when it comes to increased school funding, has put PYLUSD in a situation where it is spending more money than it is receiving.

While CSEA has tried to be reasonable with our demands and tried to meet PYLUSD halfway on this matter, PYLUSD’s 2019-2020 school year budget actuals have raised serious questions for CSEA regarding the financial stability of PYLUSD as it appears to be in a very healthy economic state. At the start of last school year, PYLUSD’s Chief Business Officer (CBO) projected that PYLUSD would end the 2019-2020 school year with $26.6 million after all yearly expenses were paid. During a midyear budget report this past March, PYLUSD’s CBO projected that PYLUSD would end the school year with $37.8 million after all yearly expenses were paid. And in the CBO’s most recent budget report which displayed PYLUSD’s actual financial numbers for the 2019-2020 school year, the report displayed that PYLUSD closed its books at the end of last fiscal year with $61.7million. This means that PYLUSD ended the 2019-2020 school year with $35.1 million more than it originally projected. The most shocking part of this is that PYLUSD is still saying NO to our wage increase proposals. For context, a one percent (1%) on-going salary increase for all employees (classified, certificated, and management) would cost $1.1 million.

The neighboring school districts around us all received wage increases for last year. The wage increase for these school districts are as follows:

School District Name

2019-2020 Salary Increases

2019-2020 Bonuses

Tustin Unified

2% Ongoing Salary Increase

2% One-time Bonus

Orange Unified

2% Ongoing Salary Increase

Retiree Health Benefits

Brea Olinda Unified

2% Ongoing Salary Increase

None

Fullerton School District

1.5% Ongoing Salary Increase

1.5% One-time Bonus

Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified

None

It is quite confusing how many of our neighboring school districts, who are a similar size and have very similar financial budgets, were all able to afford a wage increase for their employees yet PYLUSD is not able to do the same. None of these school districts had layoffs either. This confusion makes it difficult for our negotiations team to accept PYLUSD’s disrespectful compensation offer in bargaining.

CSEA is at a critical juncture in these negotiations and we need to make some strategic moves if we are going to keep fighting for a wage increase for our members. We are sitting without a contract and negotiating our final item and are in the position to strike if that’s what our membership decides it wants to do (this isn’t something that has been decided upon yet so no need to panic).

To continue to fight for a fair wage increase for our members, we will need YOUR support. In order for our negotiations team to decide its next move, we ask that you fill out a brief survey by following the link below. The information provided to CSEA in this survey will be kept completely confidential and will not be seen by anyone in PYLUSD management. You cannot get in trouble by filling out this survey in any way. CSEA’s negotiating team will decide how it will continue to fight and advocate for this wage increase based on the survey results. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.

In Unity,

Job Suarez

CSEA Placentia-Yorba Linda 293 President
Survey link: https://forms.gle/5E9ywaRk2j6WyMFy5
Not a member? Join here: csea.com/join

Placentia Yorba Linda California School Employees Association

November Newsletter 2020

Negotiations Update

MOU VOTE

Nov 9th 2020 Chapter Meeting Info 5:15pm

November 2020 Meeting Notice

NEGOTIATIONS UPDATE – IMPORTANT