Vallejo’s school district and its biggest union trade accusations of not bargaining

VALLEJO – The Vallejo City Unified School District and its largest union have accused each other this week of not bargaining over impending layoffs of more than 100 workers.

On Monday, the district submitted a request to the California Public Employment Relations Board, the state entity that oversees public sector labor law, asking the board to declare an impasse in its negotiations with the California School Employees Association Vallejo Chapter 199.

The union’s leadership, however, denies that there’s an impasse, and accused the district of not bargaining over the layoffs in good faith.

The district plans to lay off over 20% of the CSEA’s roughly 600 members, which include its lowest paid employees, such as teaching assistants, food service, and maintenance workers. In a press release, district leadership said it’s presented the union with 15 updated job descriptions for next school year “as part of a broader departmental reorganization.” The new positions, district leadership said, could open up opportunities for over 20 qualified employees who are laid off “to transition into new roles.”

CSEA Labor Relations Representative Nathan Jennings said in an interview that some of the new positions take tasks already performed by union employees and simply transfer them to new titles, making laid off workers essentially have to reapply to the job they lost. According to Jennings, transfer of tasks without ensuring the current union workers get first priority for the new jobs breaks the Educational Employment Relations Act.

CSEA filed an unfair labor practice charge against the district in February. It outlined several examples alleging the district is attempting to illegally transfer tasks, such as the new role of Positive Behavior Intervention Support Specialist, a job that CSEA claims includes tasks now performed by 14 Academic Support Providers who are all slated to be laid off.

District spokesperson Celina Baguiao said the district “understands the concern regarding potential overlap” of these two positions” but that the new proposed position is intended to provide “targeted behavioral and intervention support” which “differs in scope from academic support roles.” 

CSEA Senior Labor Relations Representative Valerie Hollins told the Vallejo Sun she thinks that the district is attempting to skirt labor law that would limit who they can and can’t lay off.

“What they’re doing here is very obvious,” Hollins said. “They want to cut the people they don’t like and pick and choose the people they like to stay.”

District leadership said its bargaining team met with CSEA multiple times in March to discuss the job descriptions, but the union “has not submitted counterproposals or identified specific negotiable impacts and effects,” and has not provided a date to continue negotiations on the matter of job descriptions. 

While “progress has been made in some areas,” the district’s leadership said that they “have not yet reached an agreement on job descriptions.” Therefore, the district declared an impasse and is seeking mediation to “reach a mutually beneficial agreement.”

Hollins, who negotiated with the district twice in March, told the Vallejo Sun she thinks the district’s statements are inaccurate and misleading. She said that while the union and the district did meet three times in March, the district’s bargaining team did not focus on the union’s main concern: layoffs and the issue of job descriptions. Instead, the district focused on unrelated issues, such as a special education program and objections the district had with how the union is operating.

“We wanted to talk about layoffs,” Hollins said. “They talked about everything but layoffs.”

Hollins accused the district of trying to “run out the clock” on the bargaining sessions by talking about issues unrelated to layoffs and showing up roughly 45 minutes late to one session. She said they are using the process of declaring an impasse incorrectly and are “playing games.”

Baguiao said that “the district does not agree with the characterization that these topics were not discussed” and that it’s been willing to discuss staffing and job descriptions throughout the process. She said that “unforeseen logistical issues” caused “a brief delay” in the district arriving at one session, and that CSEA leadership was informed.

Despite the district declaring an impasse, Hollins said the union has still been trying to negotiate. Hollins shared an email with the Vallejo Sun that she sent on Monday to the district’s HR Director, Matt Chamberlain, who’s been the chief negotiator for the district. She asked to meet on April 17 and said that “impasse declaration does not preclude parties from meeting and negotiating.” 

Chamberlain responded to Hollins email on Tuesday, and wrote that the district had requested the union propose a negotiation date by March 27, but didn’t hear back until April 6, after the district had filed for an impasse and mediator.

“We appreciate your recent outreach,” Chamberlain wrote. “However at this stage the district is prepared to proceed with impasse mediation and looks forward to participating in that process to move negotiations forward.”

In an interview, Hollins said she doesn’t think at this point the Public Employment Relations Board will recognize the impasse or appoint a mediator, and that the district’s move will delay negotiations.

According to case law with the Public Employment Relations Board, the board only allows an impasse if both “parties’ differences are so substantial and prolonged that further meeting and conferring is futile.” Hollins said that the few and unproductive meetings so far don’t qualify for an impasse.

In their press release, district leaders said they remain “hopeful that CSEA will join the district in mediation with a shared commitment to supporting employees and minimizing uncertainty for students, staff, and families.”

While Vallejo’s Board of Education has already approved the elimination of 130 full time CSEA positions, state law allows the board to reverse or rework its decision until May 15. CSEA members have protested against the layoffs multiple times this year, and called some of them illegal.

Citing a long career working with CSEA throughout the state, Hollins said the district’s handling of negotiations around layoffs have been especially bad.

“This is the most egregious district I’ve seen in the 22 years that I’ve represented school districts,” Hollins said. “They have no intention of bargaining and they don’t know what they’re doing.”