At Issue
Grand Rapids ESP unit wins vindication, $600,000 legal settlement from Dean
'Don't come around in the middle of somebody's contract and privatize us.'
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| GRESPA President Steve Spica and member Charisse Patterson, a bus driver whose job was privatized. |
Members of MEA in Grand Rapids won a $600,000 legal settlement from a private company hired by the Grand Rapids school district to transport students.
Members of the Grand Rapids
Educational Support Personnel Association
(GRESPA) will share the money as part of
a settlement between the union and Dean
Transportation, Inc. GRESPA sued Dean
Transportation alleging intentional interference
in the contract.
The Lansing-based company agreed in February to pay $600,000 to resolve the dispute just days before it was scheduled for trial.
“This is vindication for our members whose professional and personal lives were thrown into upheaval,” said GRESPA president Steve Spica. “It is a great victory. For unions across the state, it’s huge. Don’t come around in the middle of somebody’s contract and privatize us.”
The case dates to a 2005 decision by the
Grand Rapids Board of Education to fire district
transportation workers and to contract
with Dean Transportation to run the district’s
bus service while there was an existing collective
bargaining agreement between GRESPA
and the school board. The contract between
the employees and the school district was
due to expire in June 2006.
This is not the last step in the overall
dispute. MEA filed charges with
the National Labor Relations Board
(NLRB) in October 2005, citing Dean
Transportation’s failure to recognize the
employees union. In September 2006, an
administrative law judge ruled in favor of
the transportation workers, deciding that
Dean Transportation broke the law. That
case is on appeal to the NLRB.
MEA has represented the transportation workers in the Grand Rapids school district since 1993. The local association has accessed MEA services throughout the privatization fight, including help from the local UniServ office, MEA lawyers and public relations consultants.