Paramount : Schools Contract Extended

The Paramount Unified School District board has extended its contract with the California School Employees Assn. to July 31, and received CSEA’s opening proposal for next year’s contract. The current contract expires Tuesday.

CSEA, which represents non-teaching employees, is asking for a 10% wage increase, an “agency shop” that would require all classified employees to pay membership dues, and for minor changes in the wording of the current contract, according to CSEA negotiator Phyllis Dallin. Last year, the union won a 6 1/2% wage increase for one year. The district had offered the raise for three years in conjunction with a three-year contract, which the union turned down.

“I think that will prove to be a mistake,” board President Joseph M. Montoya III said. “I don’t think there is any way we can meet that offer now.”

Dallin said the union turned down the district’s offer last year because the CSEA wanted to negotiate an entirely new contract, rather than extend the old one. Both sides said they expect negotiations to last until September.