Copyright Westword
Support staff from Aurora Public Schools, including paraprofessionals who work with disabled students, manage the facilities and assist administrators, appeared to lose ground in their effort to unionize as more opposition and fewer supporters showed up for a Board of Education meeting on Tuesday, October 21. At an APS board meeting on Tuesday, October 21, a few dozen APS classified employees such as cafeteria workers, secretaries and preschool and special education teachers rallied and then spoke during the public comments to renew their call for a union, which they had first brought up in mid-August. With the school semester fully underway, Cy Alison, a pre-school facilitator at the Sable Child Development Center, told Westword that “it’s extremely stressful” to keep up the fight while trying to work. “You never know what your future holds when you’re classified. The district has complete control of your future,” Alison said. “And, so far, it seems they’re not on board with the things we want, which is scary because you feel like you’re rebelling and you could get retaliated against because you don’t have a union.” On Tuesday, APS’s classified employees told boardmembers that they still want an Aurora Classified Workers Union to be officially recognized if the majority of APS employees, including licensed staff like teachers, nurses, and counselors, voted in favor of the union; licensed staff already has union representation through the Colorado Education Association. Unlicensed workers said they hoped a union and collective bargaining would bring better wages, while others said a union would provide job security. Preschool facilitators explained that they’re the only lead teachers, or people who run a classroom, in the district without union representation, “which is completely unfair,” according to Alison. “I lead my own classroom. I have my own students. I do everything licensed staff does, but I don’t have the same rights,” she said. “We don’t get the right to negotiate, we don’t get the right to express our problems without retaliation, we don’t get those rights, and it’s not fair. That’s why I want to unionize.” Minerva Pescador, a secretary at the Aurora Quest K-8 administrative offices, said she’s been working in the district for nearly thirty years, and has reached the highest level of benefits she possibly can. Her hourly wage increases by a dollar a year, she said, but it’s not enough to keep up with the rising cost of living. “We don’t just want a union for protection, but also to have better pay,” Pescador argued. “A lot is rising in price, but our salaries are staying the same. They’re not taking that seriously.” On August 19, just a couple of weeks into the APS fall semester, classified employees packed the board room and overflow auditorium to demand the chance to unionize. The APS board discussed the idea on October 9 in an executive session, and the result was a district-wide letter saying the board needed to study the potential impact of a classified workers’ union. The letter also said the board would strengthen the existing Classified Employees Council, which is meant to mediate between the board and classified employees APS classified employees rallied before Tuesday’s meeting to show there was still a thirst for a union, but the crowd was smaller this time, with only about forty to fifty people there donning red shirts to support a union, compared to around one hundred people the first time. “It felt like another delay tactic,” Maribel Murillo, a cafeteria worker at Rangeview High School for the past two years, said of the board’s recent actions during the meeting. “Frankly, it felt disrespectful because we’ve all been waiting that you just do what’s correct.” Brittany Snow, a preschool facilitator at Vista Peak Exploratory, addressed the suggestion of beefing up the CEC, saying “it was so frustrating to read” as it wasn’t what classified employees demanded. “I tried participating in the CEC. I had to ask my boss for permission to attend during work hours…it wasn’t a space for us. It was a managed and controlled space,” Snow told the board. “That’s not what classified staff is asking for. We’re demanding our union because we want to run it ourselves.” Despite union supporters delivering about an hour’s worth of arguments to the board, the group lost a lot of the force it had when it showed up two months ago. On top of a smaller rally, more people came to speak in opposition to the union this time around, including two APS employees who admitted to switching sides. “Last time I spoke here, I was wearing one of those red shirts,” Heather Morgan, a cafeteria worker at Vassar Elementary for 17 years, told the board. “The board has always been willing to listen and hear our concerns. The CEC has not been made real clear to everyone, and we as staff have not consistently shown up to advocate for ourselves.” All the speakers in opposition, including some who had roles leading unionization efforts in August, said they were convinced the board wanted to help and trusted the idea of the strengthening the CEC. “Before we vote on unionizing, we have the opportunity to reimagine what the Classified Employees Council can be,” said Brandi Edmonds, an education assistant at Clara Brown Entrepreneurial Academy, during public comments. “The CEC has not been fully utilized or maintained in recent years, yet it holds real potential to serve as a strong representative.” Dozens of classified employees watching Edmonds from the overflow room booed her as she made her comments, with some mentioning that she had been one of the strongest voices urging a union two months ago. “For her to flip on us and not support us anymore and play nice with the district and be on their side is not fair,” Alison says. “Because at the end of the day, we’re not going to get what we want by playing nice.”
