SWTA Bargaining  Update as of
Tuesday,  August 11,  2020 @  6:00 pm 
Today SWTA Bargaining Team: Chair Brenda Robles, Alvaro Alvarez, Norma Sahagun, Melissa Romo, Lorena Garcia, Sara Golden and CTA Staff Helen Farias met with the SBUSD bargaining team: Janea Marking, Melissa Griffith, Estela Corrales, Cindy Wagner, and Jon Pearl to continue discussions around distance learning. 

  • During our last bargaining session the District stated they would counter by Friday, August 7th at noon, however, our team did not receive a counter-proposal until this morning. 
  • The SWTA bargaining team spent most of the day deciphering and clarifying the District’s counter-proposal
  • The team will meet on Thursday, August 13th to continue working on SWTA’s counter-proposal 
  • The teams discussed the following language from the calendar MOU: 

“The parties acknowledge that prior to or soon after the COVID-19 crisis began some unit members may have scheduled pre-paid vacations or made other financial commitments to take time off based upon the previously agreed to and adopted 2020-2021 calendar. In the event those obligations were incurred prior to July 1, 2020, and time off was scheduled to occur between September 21, 2020 and March 26, 2021 (specifically during Fall Break, September 21-October 2, 2020; Winter Break, Jan 4-8, 2021; or Spring Break March 22 – 26, 2021), and the expenses/commitments incurred are non-refundable and/or cannot be rescheduled without significant hardship for the unit member, then the unit member may utilize accrued paid leave or unpaid leave (if accrued paid leave is not available)”

The intent of this language was to protect members who may have previously arranged plans that were non-refundable and/or could not be rescheduled. Due to the conversation we had at the table our team believed that it was an oversight or mistake to leave out June 2-June 15, however, the district stated that it was not an oversight and that their intention was not to include those dates. Therefore, the current MOU stands,  which does not include the two weeks in June.

Next Bargaining Session is scheduled for
August 17, 2020. 

Sincerely, 
Brenda Robles (Bargaining Chair), Alvaro Alvarez, Lorena Garcia, Sara Golden, Norma Sahagun, Melissa Romo and Helen Farias (CTA Staff). 
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