Southfield school board fires 350 dedicated employees
MEA will continue to fight efforts to bust unions, privatize support staff
The Southfield Board of Education ignored an $18 million offer from employees and voted 5-2 on April 22 to outsource the jobs of more than 350 school district custodial, maintenance and transportation workers.
UniServ director Pat Haynie charged that the district and school board’s action was about “busting a strong union.”
“We came within dollars of matching what any private vendor could do and still that wasn’t good enough for this school board,” Haynie said.
The board’s decision devastated school employees, who the district says will lose their jobs as of June 30, even though the contract of 12-month employees runs through Aug. 11.
“We have members who live in this district who are going to lose their homes,” Haynie said. “We’ve got people who need only a few months of employment before they can qualify for full retirement benefits. This is just devastating.”
Southfield ESP President Michael Graves expects more Oakland County districts to attempt privatization. “They’re going to try to do this to all of us,” Graves said. “This thing could roll across the county.”
Both Graves and his wife, Joanne, saw their own jobs privatized by the board. “We’re looking at the possibility of losing our home, and that really hurts,” Graves said. “We have a special needs son who has thrived in this district, and he doesn’t want to move.”
Haynie praised MEA members, leaders and staff, as well as community members, who turned out to support the fight against outsourcing these jobs to out-of-state companies.
“Once the community members found out the amount of concessions we had offered the district, they were shocked by board’s decision,” she said.
Haynie especially thanked the two board members, James Jackson and Rudy Hobbs, who voted against privatizing. “They stood up and questioned the true savings the district was going to receive from private companies. They were elected to represent the community, and they knew our community was against privatization.”
Haynie believes the Southfield district bargained in bad faith. “Every time we met their proposals and met their demands, they came back with a different story.”