4-24-19--PSE Membership and Wapato School Board Ratify Tentative Agreement

The tentative agreement (TA) on a new collective bargaining agreement (CBA) between the Wapato School District (WSD) and the Public School Employees of Washington (PSE) has been formally adopted by both parties.  The PSE membership voted on April 17, 2019 in favor of the TA and the Wapato School Board of Directors voted to adopt the agreement during its regular business meeting on April 24, 2019.

The four year agreement retroactive to September 1, 2018 will expire on August 31, 2022.  The agreement consists of a 10% increase to the 2018-2019 salary schedule, a 3.75% increase to the 2019-2020 salary schedule, and any increase in the salary schedule for the third (2020-2021) and fourth (2021-2022) years will be driven by the State’s Implicit Price Deflator (IPD). The IPD is essentially Washington State’s calculation of the inflation rate.  Some might think or refer to it as a cost of living adjustment.

The agreement also includes language that each party can submit up to three collective bargaining agreement (CBA) openers, not including the salary schedule, to be negotiated beginning in the Spring/Summer of 2021.  Any changes that are agreed to as a result of the bargaining of the three openers will be applicable to the final year of the contract, which is from September 1, 2021 through August 31, 2022.  In addition, the WSD and PSE agreed to add and/or amend the current contract language to address the impacts of the Janus decision.  The Janus decision refers to the June 2018 United States Supreme Court ruling in Janus v. American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, Council 31.

 

4-9-19--First Mediation Session Following Failed PSE Ratification Vote Results in Tentative Agreement

The Wapato School District (WSD) and Public School Employees of Washington (PSE) bargaining teams continued their negotiations of just a salary schedule through the use of a mediator on Tuesday, April 9, 2019.  This is the first mediation session since a PSE membership vote on February 20, 2019 failed to ratify a tentative agreement (TA) on a salary schedule that was previously reached in good faith between the WSD and PSE bargaining teams using a mediator on January 30, 2019. 

As the result of this session the two parties once again reached a tentative agreement (TA). The TA provides an increase in salary for PSE members for the 2018-2019 school year which they will receive in retro compensation from September 1, 2018 if/when the tentative agreement is ratified by a vote of the PSE membership and by the Wapato School Board of Directors.

The TA also includes adding three years to the existing collective bargaining agreement (CBA).  The current, full contract between the WSD and PSE is scheduled to expire on August 31, 2019.  The TA reached on April 9th extends that expiration date to August 31, 2022.

In addition to the salary schedule increase for 2018-2019 the TA provides a negotiated increase in the salary schedule for the second year (2019-2020) of the four year agreement. 

The TA also includes language that in year three (2020-2021) each party can submit up to three collective bargaining agreement (CBA) openers, not including the salary schedule, to be negotiated beginning in the Spring/Summer of 2021.  Any changes that are agreed to as a result of the bargaining of the three openers will be applicable to the final year of the contract, which is from September 1, 2021 through August 31, 2022.

The tentative agreement outlined above will not be made formal until ratified by both the District’s PSE membership and the Wapato School Board of Directors.  However, the WSD bargaining team and District leadership would like to thank the PSE bargaining team and the mediator for their hard work and commitment to the process of reaching an agreement that is fair and equitable for all involved.

 

2-20-19--PSE Membership Vote Fails to Ratify Tentative Agreement

On the afternoon of February 20, 2019  the members of the Wapato Association of Custodial, Maintenance, Transportation, Food Service and Paraeducator Employees, affiliated with the Public School Employees of Washington (PSE) took a vote to ratify a tentative agreement (TA) regarding an increase in its salary schedule for the 2018-2019 school year and another increase for the 2019-2020 school year.  The ratification vote failed.  

The WSD and PSE bargaining teams, with the help of a mediator, reached the tentative agreement in good faith on January 30, 2019. 

The tentative agreement (TA) reflected a total increase of 12.5% in salary compensation over two-years for all District employees represented by the PSE Association.   PSE members would have received an 8.5% increase for 2018-2019, of which 3.1% has already been allocated.  The tentative agreement (TA) added an additional year (2019-2020) to the current collective bargaining agreement and included another salary schedule increase of 4.0% for all PSE members.

To provide perspective the current salary schedule and the salary schedules tentatively agreed to by the WSD & PSE bargaining teams on January 30, 2019 are seen below. 

 

CURRENT SALARY SCHEDULE 

 

                                               

 

The salary schedules seen below reflect the increases tentatively agreed to by the WSD and PSE bargaining teams on January 30, 2019.  The schedule on the left shows the 8.5% across the board increase for 2018-2019 and the schedule on the right shows another 4% across the board increase for 2019-2020. 

2018-2019 and 2019-2020 SALARY SCHEDULES

 

 

The graphs seen below are a summary of how much more per year it would cost the District to cover salaries/benefits for PSE members as a result of the tentative agreement (TA) reached on January 30, 2019.  $465,540 in 2018-2019 and $202,366 in 2019-2010 for a total cost of $667,906.

                                                   2018-2019                                    2019-2020

                                 

 The tentative agreement reached on January 30, 2019 also stated the PSE may notify the District prior to May 20, 2019 if it wished to present up to three sections, not including the salary schedule, of the collective bargaining agreement (CBA) for re-negotiation prior to August 31, 2019.  If the PSE presented three sections for re-negotiation the District could also have presented three sections, not including the salary schedule.  

 

1-30-19--Third Mediation Session Results in Tentative Agreement

The Wapato School District (WSD) and Public School Employees of Washington (PSE) bargaining teams continued their negotiations of just a salary schedule through the use of a mediator on Wednesday, January 30, 2019.   As the result of this session the two parties were able to reach a tentative agreement on a salary schedule for the 2018-2019 school year. If/when the tentative agreement is ratified by a vote of the PSE membership and by the Wapato School Board of Directors, district employees represented by the PSE will receive retro compensation from September 1, 2018, at the newly agreed to salary schedule rate.

In addition, the bargaining teams, through the use of a mediator, also reached a tentative agreement for an additional year of the collective bargaining agreement (CBA) beginning September 1, 2019 and ending August 31, 2020.  The tentative agreement for the additional year includes an increase in the salary schedule and language that each party can submit up to three collective bargaining agreement (CBA) openers, not including the salary schedule, to be negotiated beginning this Spring/Summer (2019).  Any changes that are agreed to as a result of the bargaining of the three openers later this year will be applicable to the additional year of the contract, which is from September 1, 2019 through August 31, 2020.

The tentative agreements outlined above will not be made formal until ratified by both the District’s PSE membership and the Wapato School Board of Directors.  However, the WSD bargaining team and District leadership would like to thank the PSE bargaining team and the mediator for their hard work and commitment to the process of reaching an agreement that is fair and equitable for all involved.

 

1-8-19--Second Mediation Session 

The Wapato School District (WSD) and Public School Employees of Washington (PSE) bargaining teams continued their negotiations of just a salary schedule through the use of a mediator on Tuesday, January 8, 2019.  This session included the WSD bargaining team and PSE bargaining team each submitting salary schedule proposals through the use of the mediator.  The WSD proposal reflected an increase in the salary schedule from what it offered in its previous proposal.  The PSE proposal reflected a decrease in the salary schedule from what it offered in its last proposal.  The session ended without reaching a tentative agreement on a new salary schedule.  The two side are scheduled to meet again through mediation on January 30, 2019.

 

11-27-18--First Mediation Session

The Wapato School District (WSD) and Public School Employees of Washington (PSE) bargaining teams continued their negotiations of just a salary schedule through the use of a mediator on Tuesday, November 27, 2018.   This was the first mediation session since the two teams agreed in early October to jointly seek mediation as a means to reach an agreement on a salary schedule.  There were no formal written proposals exchanged by either of the teams during this session.  However, the PSE team verbally shared with the WSD team via the mediator that it was standing by the last salary schedule proposal it submitted during the October 3rd bargaining session.  The WSD team spent time working on counter proposal but did not finish the work prior to the session ending.  The two sides are scheduled to meet again through mediation on January 8th. 

 

10-3-18

The Wapato School District (WSD) and Public School Employees of Washington (PSE) bargaining teams met on October 3, 2018 and continued to negotiate in an effort to reach an agreement on a salary schedule for the 2018-2019 school year. The session started with the PSE team submitting a salary schedule proposal which was a counter to the latest proposal the WSD team submitted during the August 8, 2018 session.  The PSE proposal did reflect a decrease from its previous proposal.  The WSD team followed by presenting a counter proposal which reflected an increase over its previous proposal submitted during the August 8, 2018 session.   The PSE team then submitted its second counter proposal of this session which reflected a decrease from its proposal submitted earlier in this session.  The WSD team then countered with a proposal that would add a year to the existing collective bargaining agreement (CBA).  The WSD proposal maintained the salary schedule increase for the 2018-2019 year at the level reflected in its proposal submitted earlier in this session and guaranteed a salary increase in the proposed additional year to the CBA.  The PSE did not provide a counter proposal and instead engaged the WSD team in a discussion about jointly seeking mediation as a means to help reach an agreement.  The WSD team agreed to jointly request mediation. The District is looking forward to an expedient and fair resolution for all during this next step in the negotiations process.  The first scheduled mediation session is November 27, 2018.

 

8-8-18

The July 20, 2018 report ended with a reference to some discussion that took place during that meeting regarding recent changes to State and Federal legislation that may potentially impact union membership.  When the Wapato School District (WSD) and Public School Employees of Washington (PSE) bargaining teams met on August 8, 2018 that discussion resulted in a Tentative Agreement (TA) which amends some of the language in Section 6.4 of the current Collective Bargaining Agreement which deals with “New Employee Reporting”.   The bargaining session on August 8, 2018 also included the District presenting the PSE with a salary schedule counter proposal to the salary schedule proposal the PSE presented at the July 20, 2018 session.  The District’s counter did reflect an increase over its previous proposal.  The PSE then submitted its counter proposal which reflected a decrease in the salary schedule from the proposal it presented at the July 20, 2018 session, however it also included the addition of some benefits outside of the salary schedule.  The two teams also engaged in a discussion about the District’s Federal Program Revenue available to supplement salaries of certain PSE members considered “categorical employees”.   Below is a chart showing the actual 2017-2018 federal revenue compared to the estimated 2018-2019 totals.  You can see the difference is estimated to be just a little more than $17,000.

FEDERAL REVENUE for PSE SALARIES

Program Name	17-18	18-19 (estimated)	Difference
Federal / State Food Service	$1,900,096	$1,931,969	$31,873
Federal Migrant	$555,958	$518,665	-$37,293
Federal Sped 2400	$686,654	$708,571	$21,917
Federal Sped 2461	$35,620	$36,494	$874
Federal Sped 2900	$99,750	$99,750	$0
Total	$3,278,078	$3,295,449	$17,371

 

Before the session ended the District team presented another counter salary schedule proposal which reflected an additional increase from the increase reflected in the proposal the District submitted earlier in this day’s bargaining session.  Plans for the next bargaining session are pending. 

 

7-20-18:

The bargaining teams for the Wapato School District (WSD) and Public School Employees of Washington (PSE) met for a second time as they work towards reaching an agreement on a salary schedule for the 2018-2019 school year.  During the July 20, 2018 session the WSD team provided the PSE with a presentation regarding general revenue/expenditure budget information for the WSD.  The WSD team also provided the PSE team with a salary schedule proposal which was counter to the salary proposal the PSE submitted during the initial bargaining session on July 16, 2018.  The PSE had a counter proposal ready which they submitted during the July 20, 2018 meeting after receiving the WSD’s proposal.  The two teams also engaged in some discussion regarding recent changes to State and Federal legislation that may potentially impact union membership.

 

7-16-18:

The Wapato School District (WSD) and Public School Employees of Washington (PSE) bargaining teams conducted their initial session on July 16, 2018.  During that session the PSE team provided the WSD team with its initial salary schedule proposal.

 

6-15-18:

There is currently a two year collective bargaining agreement in place with the PSE (September 1, 2017–August 31, 2019).  WSD and PSE have agreed to open and re-bargain the salary schedule for the 2018–2019 school year.  WSD and PSE are in the process of identifying dates and times to begin bargaining.