The Value of MEA
MEA sticks by members in Grand Rapids
privatization ordeal
‘We wouldn’t be anywhere without MEA’s legal assistance.’
When Donna Mitchner lost her job as a bus driver employed by Grand Rapids Public Schools, she wasn’t sure what the future held for her–or the rest of her colleagues whose jobs were all outsourced to a private transportation company.
“I felt like somebody just snatched up my future,” says Mitchner, who has driven a bus for 16 years in Grand Rapids.
Like many of the former district employees, Mitchner got a job with Dean Transportation Inc., the private company hired to run the district’s transportation operations.
But even though she was able to continue doing the same job that she loved, her life changed. Her plans to retire in 10 years were derailed. Her wages were slashed by $4 per hour. Her benefits were cut—and the premiums cost her nearly $280 a month, a big slice of her income.
For Mitchner, insult was added to injury when she and the rest of the former Grand Rapids employees hired by Dean were forced to join the private company’s own employee union.
“Their union cost $10 and you’re on your
own,” says Mitchner, who served as a union
steward for the Grand Rapids Educational
Support Personnel Association, an MEA
affiliate that had represented transportation
workers since 1993. “You’re getting
$10 worth of service.”
MEA didn’t abandon Mitchner and her colleagues, though. From helping members whose hours were cut claim unemployment benefits to filing legal complaints to protect members’ rights, MEA stepped up when it counted, Mitchner said.
Last fall, with MEA’s legal help, the
workers won a key battle to remain represented
by GRESPA and MEA.
Dean broke federal labor law when it refused to recognize the employees union.
MEA filed federal charges with the National Labor Relations Board in October 2005 against Dean over the private company’s handling of Grand Rapids drivers. In a ruling dated Sept. 27, 2006, Administrative Law Judge Michael A. Marcionese ruled in favor of the employees, who are prepared to bargain a new contract.
Citing the federal “successorship doctrine” governing employers, GRESPA sought to continue to represent Grand Rapids transportation workers who were fired by the district in June 2005 and subsequently rehired by Dean Transportation to perform their former jobs.
The district contracted with Dean
Transportation to run its bus service,
sold its buses to the private company
and leased district property to Dean. The
workers were forced to join Dean’s own
employee union in violation of the law,
according to Marcionese’s ruling. Dean
has appealed the ruling.
“This is a victory for employees whose jobs are threatened by privatization,” said MEA President Iris Salters. “The MEA will not abandon members, even when the employer changes. The working conditions of school employees are the learning conditions for students–and we need to advocate to be sure that both are of the highest quality.”
Added Mitchner: “We wouldn’t be anywhere without MEA’s legal assistance. We’d see no light at the end of the tunnel. This gives us hope.”