CHICOPEE — On June 10, the Chicopee Education Association and Chicopee Public Schools Negotiation Subcommittee met for the 10th and final bargaining session of this school year.
The CEA has been using expanded bargaining, which includes the use of silent representatives, so that they could get feedback more quickly from a portion of their over 1,100-member union.
This bargaining session was the longest one yet, according to CEA President Ben Eisen, lasting almost six hours and involving many heavy decisions.
Going into that meeting, CPS was proposing wage adjustments of 3%, 3%, 2% for Unit A or teachers, 3%, 2.5%, 2% for Unit B or administrators and 3%, 2.5, 2% for Unit E or education support professionals.
Eisen said the CEA was proposing wage adjustments of 5%, 4%, 4% for Unit A and Unit B and 8%, 7%, 7% for Unit E.
“The CEA caucused and decided to prioritize the needs of Unit E, almost all of whom have to supplement their income with multiple jobs, selling blood plasma and other means to make ends meet,” Eisen said.
The CEA moved its offers to 3%, 3%, 3% for Unit A and Unit B, and 3%, 2.5%, 2% and including paid holidays for Unit E.
Despite the units with the highest salaries each dropping 4% from their proposals, the School Committee returned with a change of 3%, 3%, 2% for Unit A and Unit B, and 3%, 3%, 3% without the paid holidays for Unit E.
Eisen talked about the paid holidays and said, “These paid holidays account for a significantly greater increase to those staff, some of whom bring home only $200 per pay period, and would help immensely to help them move towards earning a living wage.”
According to Eisen, while CPS thanked the CEA for its movement, a settlement was not reached. “In the debrief with its silent representatives, many expressed that CPS’ unwillingness to move to a reasonable offer for Unit E was a disappointment and disrespectful both to the Unit E members and to the Unit A and Unit B members who chose to sacrifice their standing to help lift up our lowest paid members.”
The next bargaining session has been scheduled for Sept. 4 as many CEA bargaining team members have summer jobs that conflict with scheduling during the summer.
Aside from salaries, there are also a small handful of other items, such as a health and safety committee, additional meetings and defining the workday that may be discussed over the summer via the CEA and CPS legal counsel without a formal meeting between the parties.
For the second consecutive year, Chicopee educators spoke out during public comment at the May 21 School Committee meeting, sharing stories of students being physically abusive toward teachers.
Almost exactly a year ago, the School Committee meeting was standing room only as faculty from Chicopee Public Schools used the public comment portion of the meeting to express their concerns with the way students are acting.
Multiple members highlighted several events where students were verbally and even physically abusive toward teachers leading to the proposal for a health and safety committee.
