by Randy Bayne
Amador trustees are clearly not interested in the maintenance of the schools and other facilities under their care. They are also not interested in questioning their chief employee, Superintendent Dick Glock. Supporting the superintendent’s wishes, trustees voted 6-1 to layoff all eleven maintenance employees, leaving no one to maintain Amador’s schools. The lone dissenting vote came from Trustee Pat Miller.
As the vote was being taken, employees affected by the layoffs stood and faced the board so trustees could see exactly who they were hurting. They wanted the board to look them in the eye and tell them their jobs were being taken away, something at least one board member, newcomer Janelle Redkey, was unable to do.
A word of advice, Janelle. If you can’t look them in the eye while firing them, maybe your not doing the right thing.
At their last meeting two weeks ago, trustees instructed Glock to negotiate alternatives to a layoff of the entire Amador schools maintenance department. Talks took place, but they could hardly be called negotiations, according to California School Employees Association (CSEA) negotiators. In meetings with management, sans Glock, employees were told by management representatives that they had “no authority” to come to any agreement. The statement drew a sharp response from CSEA representatives who were left wondering why the district even bothered with the sham.
CSEA Representatives Melody Honeychurch and Marcie Bayne reported to trustees “the administration was unprepared” and did not enter into “meaningful negotiations.”
Following the board meeting, it was revealed that Glock, making an appearance on local television station TSPN, said he had to get back to negotiations. According to CSEA representatives, Glock never returned after the broadcast, and management proceeded without him, and apparently without the authority to do anything.
Perhaps Glock should be the one looking for work. His failure to follow the Board’s direction could surely be considered derelict.
Nevertheless, employees made their pitch. A furlough plan was offered by CSEA which would result in a savings equal to the amount saved by a layoff. The furlough proposal called for all employees, excluding teachers, to take five days off without pay before the end of June 2009. This would spread the cuts shallower and wider affecting more employees, but none would lose their job. The plan would save the district an estimated $150,000 – the exact amount they were looking for. The catch — the plan included the superintendent. Glock would have to take five days off without pay as well.
Whether or not the furlough plan was ever presented to the board is unknown. The feeling among employees and many in the community is that it doesn’t matter. Many believe there is a personal vendetta against at least some of the maintenance employees and that this is the only way for Glock to rid himself of those he doesn’t like.
Dick Glock
© A.R.Bayne
There is also speculation that Glock plans on retiring at the end of June, and that he came to Amador to simply pad his retirement then leave. This, of courese, gives Glock every reason to reject the furlough offer. Five furlough days would cut into his retirement padding.
In an interview following the meeting, Honeychurch told Alex Lane of TSPN, “I’m devastated…it was never their intention to work with us to come up with an alternative.” She added that there was “no consideration” for the impact on the employees or the community.
Now begins the task of negotiating the affects of the layoffs. Under California law, the decision to layoff school employees is not negotiatable. However, the affect of those layoffs are. The real question is, given their past record of refusing to talk by claiming no authority, will there be any meaningful negotiations. The union is prepared to take whatever legal action is necessary to assure the district’s compliance with the law. “If they fail to bargain with us in good faith, we will take appropriate action,” said Bayne.
Meanwhile, the real losers in all this will be students. The message these layoffs send to students, parents, and the community at large, is that the Amador County School Board does not consider well maintained schools a priority. Rather than ask Glock and others to take five days off without pay in order to maintain basic services, this Board would rather put in jeopardy the health and well-being of students.
Glock claimed, “some of the things we’re doing as adults is to protect their environment.”
How does eliminating the entire maintenance department “protect their environment”? It is the maintenance employees who insure students have a healthy and safe environment – keeping classes warm in the winter (it is snowing in Jackson today), and cool in the summer, maintainging plumbing, heating, electricity, and more. Keeping maintenance employees protect the student’s environment. Laying them off jeopardizes it.
The union offered a reasonable and viable alternative that was never given any serious consideration. The response from all but one trustee was we don’t need to maintain our schools.
