Kenosha ESP, Green Bay EA win bargaining awards

12/11/2008 5:25:00 PM

The Kenosha Education Association Education Support Professionals Negotiations Team and the Green Bay Education Association Negotiations Team are the winners of the 2008 Paul Bierbrauer Commemorative Award for bargaining excellence.

The winners were selected by the WEAC Bargaining Goals Committee and approved by the WEAC Board of Directors.

KEA Education Support Professionals

Notable components of the 2007-09 KEA ESP bargaining agreement include the following:

• Added new language to provide for a snow day for educational assistants, as is provided in the 2007-09 teacher contract.
• Added a paid personal day to the 2007-09 contract by reclassifying one of the sick leave days as a personal day.
• Continued current employee health and dental care contributions, and provided long-term care insurance for employees to purchase.
• Removed the employee contribution and trigger for retiree health insurance, and reduced retiree age restriction to 57.
• Increased the dental insurance annual maximum to $2,000.
• Provided a 3.5% across-the-board pay increase effective July 1, 2007, and another 3.5% effective July 1, 2008.

The 2007-09 KEA ESP bargain exceeded all minimum WEAC Bargaining Goals contract standards. This agreement also exceeds nearly all WEAC Long Term ESP Bargaining Goals. This continues a long-standing pattern of Collective Bargaining Agreements in Kenosha, which ignore the existence of the QEO.

The KEA said success in bargaining has been achieved through long-term efforts to encourage and develop ESP leaders, member education and communication, political action efforts at the local and other levels, and through the bargaining expertise of KEA staff.

The 2007-09 KEA ESP Negotiations Team consisted of KEA Executive Director Joe Kiriaki, Louise Redlin, Becky McCarthy, Rose Colwill, Pagette Tilsner, Patricia Parker, Lisa Hummel, Julie Pelkowski, Blanca Brown, Helen Thomas, Kathy Lusiak, and Ray Heideman.

GBEA

The Green Bay Education Association summed up its bargaining success this way:

After two bargains using an expedited process, the Negotiations Team took up the challenge of changing Professional Learning, revising the salary schedule, permanently eliminating age caps for early retirement, implementing a wellness plan, and enabling members to access the WEA Trust with the life and dental insurance.  The 2007-09 Collective Bargaining Agreement presented significant change, which made it controversial with the membership. Despite that, the successor collective bargaining agreement was ratified by a large majority.

The team was led by Chief Negotiator and Executive Director Keith Patt, and included President David Harswick, Melissa Hanmann, Linda Jaeger, Greg Sawyer and Michelle Van Lieshout.

Posted December 11, 2008