7/26/2019 San Diego (Calif.) School Employees Decertify SEIU
Local 221 and Join Independent Union June 10, 2016
1/1
PRESS RELEASEJune 10, 2016
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Lynnette Turner
(858) 859-7968
PUSD Employees Overwhelmingly Vote For New Union
Poway, California In election results announced today by the
Public Employment Relations Board (PERB),
classified employees of the Poway Unified School District (PUSD)
in the Operations Support Services (OSS)
bargaining unit voted overwhelmingly, by a 96% margin, to leave
their current union and join the Poway School
Employees Association (PSEA). The official vote tally was 295
for PSEA, 10 for Local 221 of the Service Employees
International Union (SEIU), and 1 for No Representation.
The vote, which was conducted by mail between May 11 and June 9,
2016, was a resounding rebuke of SEIU, which
has represented these 479 employees since 1988. In March of this
year, the former leadership of the SEIU chapter
at PUSD led the effort to unite their blue-collar members with
PSEA, an independent union which has represented
the 1,500 white-collar classified employees at PUSD since 2010.
The former SEIU chapter leaders complained of
unresponsive SEIU representatives, high SEIU dues, and a lack of
resources, training and assistance.
PSEA has a proven track record of delivering for its members,
both in collective bargaining and in contract
enforcement. We are beyond thrilled to join them and ensure
better representation for our members said Nick
Lombardo, a Bus Driver at the District, former SEIU Chapter
President and former SEIU negotiations team member.
Our dispute all along has been with SEIU, not with our
co-workers. We want to encourage all our colleagues that
voted for SEIU to join us in PSEA.
We are pleased to welcome these employees into our Association,
said Lynnette Turner, an Administrative
Assistant at PUSD and President of PSEA. By uniting all
classified employees into one union, we will have a
stronger voice at the District to ensure the needs of cl
assified employees are met. With this victory, PSEA nowrepresents
approximately 2,000 employees at PUSD, making it by far the largest
labor union at the District. The
PSEA Board of Directors will be meeting next Tuesday to discuss
the next steps for integrating all PUSD classified
employees into one powerful organization.
The Operations Support Services bargaining unit is made up of
various blue-collar job classifications, such as: bus
drivers, custodians, groundskeepers, warehouse workers, skilled
trades workers, cafeteria workers, and others.
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