Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1508385
ISEA Communiqué • isea.org October/November 2023 7 By Mike Wiser, mike.wiser@isea.org FORT DODGE One school board, two superintendents, three association grievances, four individual grievances and ve people who were able to split roughly $20,000. Oh, and a pair of unions, with an assist from state sta, that made sure their people got paid. That's how the numbers ultimately worked out after school administrators re-interpreted existing policy language and changed a long- standing practice in Fort Dodge. At issue was how the district paid out accrued vacation time. Vacation accrual payout was capped at 40 days. But district ocials – after a mix-up in human resources – decided that no vacation accrual made in an employees' nal year would count toward the 40 days. "This just made me hot under the collar," Norma Adson said. "We fought for a lot of years to get that language in there and then – poof!" She's the former president of the custodial maintenance union in Fort Dodge and is married to Bill Adson who was serving as president when the administration made the change. The change meant the district would sti members thousands of dollars of earned pay. Getting to work Bill and Norma got to work. Bill raised the union's concerns with administrators, but they struck Bill as being dismissive with the issue. They were soon joined by Janell Birnbaum, co- president of the Fort Dodge secretarial union whose members would also be aected by the administrative re-interpretation. They also involved their UniServ director, Andrew Williams. Williams said that after several months of little movement from the administration, the unions decided to circulate a petition demanding the district pay former employees what they earned. The message: People worked here. They earned their benets. The district failed them. Petition passing can be a powerful tool in organizing because it can demonstrate popular support to a target and help organizers inform members while they internally assess support for a specic issue. "We started with the petition," Bill said. "We already decided we'd le a grievance and bring that to the Labor Relations Board if there was no change." They gathered about 50 signatures from bargaining unit members and a few other retirees and scheduled a meeting with administrators to present the petition. On April 3, Fort Dodge administrators agreed to a meeting for April 17. Delay then success But the day of, administrators balked when Williams sent a note that an ISEA sta attorney would be with. Instead of meeting with the union members and their representatives, Fort Dodge administrators kept them waiting at the central oce for an hour-and-30 minutes with no interaction. Eventually, Williams and the others left. "In this case, the district started to hide behind their attorney and refused to discuss the matter further – with their excuse being that 'you (the union members) involved an attorney, so therefore this is now in the hands of our attorney...,'" Williams said. "But members are entitled to receive whatever help ISEA can provide to resolve their case. The district doesn't get to limit how we choose to solve a problem." As Birnbaum later wrote to the school board "I have been with the district for 28 years and I have worked with many administrators, but I have never been so disrespected." Grievances followed along with the assurances from the unions that Fort Dodge employees would press the case further if necessary. Turns out, they didn't have to. The incoming superintendent was given the OK to settle on the unions' terms. "They didn't think we'd go as far as they did," Birnbaum said, "and I think the incoming superintendent wanted to do the right thing." The Adsons are both retired from Fort Dodge now. Bill was paid out correctly and Birnbaum said the relationship with the district is the best it's been in at least the last four years. "It's great," she said. "There are no problems and no hard feelings." ESP local doesn't back down; gets paid Janell Birnbaum (l-r) Bill Adson and Norma Adson hold up a check outside of Riverside School in Fort Dodge where Bill used to work. The check is one of several the Fort Dodge Community School District cut to retirees, like Bill, for accrued vacation payout. District ocials disputed that they owed employees payout for time earned in the employees' nal year of employment. An organizing eort by the local union, with backup from the ISEA, made it right. MIKE WISER/IOWA STATE EDUCATION ASSOCIATION