After a year of negotiations, the Long Beach Unified School District (LBUSD) unanimously approved agreements with two unions representing LBUSD teachers and classified workers on Wednesday.
The California School Employees Association (CSEA) has been negotiating with the district since March of 2020 and reached an impasse in October of last year. CSEA had initially asked the district for a 7% retroactive raise and one-time bonuses of $1,250 each for retention as essential workers and another one-time bonus of $1,000 for hazard pay.
The Teachers Association of Long Beach (TALB) and LBUSD had been negotiating since November of last year. TALB asked for a 6% retroactive salary increase and 1% one-time payment.
A tentative agreement with classified workers was reached on April 13. It was ratified by CSEA members on May 13 and subsequently approved by the board on Wednesday.
The approved pay increase consists of a 1% on-schedule raise for the 2019-2020 school year that will be retroactive to July 1, 2019; another similar on-schedule raise of 2% that will be retroactive to July 1, 2020; and a 2% one-time payment based on an employee’s earnings for the school year of 2020-2021.
Director of Employee Relations and Ethics Steven Rockenbach said that the goal is for these funds to be sent out in June and into the summer.
Board President Juan Benitez expressed a “sentimental appreciation and gratitude” for the negotiating teams.
Agreement updates procedures for donating sick leave
The agreement also revised donor requisites for LBUSD’s Sick Leave Donation Program; employees can now donate to any LBUSD employee regardless of whether they are represented by an organization such as CSEA and TALB or not.
The program was created to help employees suffering from a catastrophic physical illness or injury who have depleted all their sick leave. It enables other employees to donate one to five days of their accrued monthly sick leave to them instead. Prior to Wednesday’s agreement, TALB members could only donate sick leave to other TALB members.
In addition, health benefits coverage was expanded to recognize all domestic partners registered in California. Previous contracts only recognized same-sex domestic partners.
The district will be working with CSEA for the 2021-2022 contract year but CSEA has asked to see the full contract draft. Rockenbach said the district hopes to have agreements in September.
As for TALB, their pay increases consist of a 4.5% on-schedule raise retroactive to July 2021 and a 2.5% one-time payment based on 2021-2022 wages–a compromise between TALB’s initial demands and the 4% increase and 3% one-time payment the district offered on March 25.
