Workers in Wichita public schools vote overwhelmingly in favor of new union contracts
Employees at Wichita Public Schools voted overwhelmingly to approve new union contracts with the district after USD 259 added a bonus and other worker-friendly provisions, said Esau Freeman, the business representative for the union.
SEIU Local 513 represents non-teacher employees at USD 259. It has one contract for security workers at the district and another for classified employees, which includes custodians, maintenance workers, secretaries and more.
“I think they really felt heard and respected because of that money that was able to be shared with the employees,” Freeman said.
The Wichita Board of Education will consider the contracts at its next meeting in order to fully ratify the agreements.
Both contracts will last for one year, the typical time frame. Union members had from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday to vote at the local union hall on the west side. Security employees gave their contract 100% approval while the other workers approved their contract by 97%.
The security contract covers nearly 60 employees at the school district while the classified contract represents around 2,600 workers, Freeman said. SEIU Local 513 represents public employees in Wichita and Hutchinson. Aside from USD 259, the union also represents some city of Wichita workers.
The new contracts include a 4% bonus: 2% for the time employees came to work in person during the coronavirus pandemic and another 2% for the time they will work through the upcoming school year.
“There was some real animosity from the working people going in and risking their lives every day to be in person while many other people weren’t,” Freeman said of the last school year. “So this was one of the things that made them happy.”
The contracts also include a 2.5% general pay adjustment and the steps and ranges that the union expected.
The union will keep an eye on any COVID-19 mitigation measures as more staff and students return to school buildings soon, Freeman said. The district will not require face masks or coronavirus vaccines this fall, the school board officially decided in late June.
Freeman said he’s told union staff to be prepared for any changes in COVID-19 protocol, though. As the Delta variant continues to drive increases in cases in Kansas and across the country, Freeman will watch and consider asking the district to take future action.
“Things are fine where they are for right now, but we’re conscious of numbers being on the rise and the safety of the children,” Freeman said. “We’re holding on loosely like we have through this whole thing.”
Freeman said that SEIU Local 513 has a good relationship with USD 259 and negotiations have gone well in the past, too.
“It really had very few takeaways and it had a huge amount of addressing concerns that we’ve been addressing for years,” Freeman said of the new contracts. “It’s really comforting to know they’re listening and they’re reactionary to the desires of the employee groups.”
This story was originally published July 21, 2021 at 1:18 PM.
