How many Davis community members or parents are aware that all classified employees of DJUSD have lost their democratic right to union representation?
Classified employees of DJUSD are represented by CSEA (California School Employees Association), which includes para educators, aides, kitchen, grounds crew, maintenance, just to name a few. In recent years, many members have not been happy with how the previous board was handling contracts through collective bargaining, and felt as though the majority of membership was not being represented.
Union meetings became tense, as members felt as if the union board and CSEA reps were conducting themselves in an adversarial manner, leaving many members feeling intimidated. This led to two board members removing themselves from their board seats last fall, including the board president, which allowed for new members to run for those seats; new members that wanted to fight for all of membership to make positive change that would bring about closing the wage gaps and focusing on equitable pay, health benefits, and better working conditions.
This last year was a contract year. I ran for negotiations committee last spring, and was elected BY membership via democratic voting. Without going into details, our union board, along with our local union reps, made a last minute play that pushed me off of the committee, leaving me unable to fill my seat at the negotiations table while our bargaining agreement was being negotiated with the district.
This was also an election year. All board seats were up for election in December. The two vacant seats were filled, a new vice president and communications officer were nominated to run, with no one running against them, which means they automatically won those seats. The only seats left vacant that needed to be filled were president and chief union steward, both of whom automatically get seats on negotiations. I was running for chief union steward. Two old board members chose to run against me and the new candidate for president.
But two days before elections, the president of CSEA Adam Weinberger sent out an inflammatory email that insinuated wrongdoing on the parts of a select couple of individuals on the board, and instituted what is called an “administratorship.” This is basically a hostile takeover. Under administratorship, elections were cancelled, the entire board was removed — along with any site reps, committee reps, etc. — and all of our chapter’s powers were given to one man, a CSEA regional/area rep. Under administratorship, we also have NO constitution.
It has now been 3 and a half months. Prior to the administratorship, membership filed an appeal against the tentative agreement that was passed this last fall, questioning that it was passed violating union policy. As of today, this “appeal” is still being looked into and investigated, but with no public knowledge to any details.
CSEA, under administratorship, also performed an audit, as the CSEA president had insinuated that there was “misappropriation of funds.” The audit found this accusation to be null. There were many other accusations put forth from the president to membership that have still not been investigated, or at least any investigative fact finding has still not been made public.
I have strong personal opinions and a lot of my own evidence as to why these things have transpired. I am choosing to withhold much of this at this time. Still, the question everyone should be asking is why? Why right before elections? Why after years of membership complaining? Why right when new committees were being made by newly appointed board members? Why right when membership started truly showing up to meetings and getting involved? Why two days before an election that most likely would have removed every old board member, leaving a fresh new team that had been working for months to make a positive change?
Unions are supposed to work FOR membership, not against them. Everything is done under contract law, and under laws that grant us what is called the “right to fair representation.”
I encourage those who care, to get involved. Everything I shared impacts those who work closest to your children and the students that we dedicate our tireless efforts to, and THEY are the ones that matter most. Not politics. Not egos. Not self-interests.
Chris Haskins is a DJUSD Educator
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I would be interested in hearing a response from CSEA leadership. Also the article was a little unclear about the structure of the organization – is the board referenced just the DJUSD CSEA board? I see that CSEA is a “local” under AFSCME, is there an an appeal process that involves the wider union? How are other CSEA locals (?) functioning? Was the president who initiated the “administratorship” the statewide president? It would also be useful to see the inflammatory email. As a member of the Davis community I would be more than willing to put pressure on CSEA in any way that we can if this process is an unjust attack on our school employees. Right now we need more information.
Hi Mike,
I appreciate your interest in these issues. Let me try to answer a couple of your questions. First, I believe you have the wrong ‘CSEA.” CSEA under AFSCME is in NY. Completely different union, where as our CSEA is the California School Employees Association, and it’s the largest union in California for classified staff members.
The board I was speaking on was indeed our elected DJUSD CSEA board. The president, Adam Weinberger, is the president of CSEA, so the email came all the way from the top.
Other chapters have functioning boards that actually support their membership, are proactive and transparent, which has not been the case with ours for many years.
There is much nuance to this administratorship, because on one hand, our old board, along with our union reps, were failing membership. So, some of the issues addressed in Weinberger’s email have some validity to it. The bigger problem is the timing and the ‘why now?’ I will be attaching his email below. CSEA knew about many of the issues within our chapter and refused to act for a long time. We were about to sweep the entire board anew, with leaders that were already beginning to bring forth the change needed, and only then did CSEA want to get involved. I have my reasonings and facts to why this is, but I will be presenting much more in due time. Please feel free to find my information and reach out to me.
Chris Haskins
Email from Adam Weinberger:
This has been a challenging time for the California School Employees Association (CSEA), and for all the members of CSEA and its Davis Chapter 572 (Chapter 572). CSEA’s primary mission is to improve the lives of our members, students and their communities. Sometimes we are forced to take proactive measures in order to ensure that happens. Due to the unwillingness of several executive board members to learn and follow CSEA Policy, this is one of those times. When chapters lack these components, all members suffer. Specifically, certain Davis Chapter 572 chapter leaders engaged in the following:
Severe internal conflict and policy misuse have led to wasted resources, governance failures, and harm to members’ effectiveness and democratic participation
Leadership failures have severely weakened chapter strength, bargaining power, and CSEA stability, constituting a serious breach of responsibility and governance.
Constitutional and policy violations in the conduct of negotiations, the bargaining relationship with the District, and chapter membership ratification procedures have jeopardized the chapter and CSEA.
Serious violations of policy when chapter leaders misappropriated funds, misusing the collective fund intended for all members, causing damage to the membership and the chapter.
If these chapter executive board members were allowed to continue engaging in this behavior, the members of Chapter 572 would suffer. These chapter leaders impaired the strength, trust and professionalism of the chapter, which is why CSEA has removed the local leadership.
The CSEA Board of Directors has placed your chapter under temporary administratorship. During this time, Davis Chapter 572 leadership may not hold the executive board positions they held prior to this action. This allows us to work to rebuild the Executive Board and implement appropriate changes to benefit all chapter members. We regret having to take this step but rest assured that the health of your chapter is of the utmost importance to your Association Board of Directors. I have appointed CSEA Board Member and Area A Director Ron Walker as Administrator for your chapter.
Your chapter will still be there for you. Your contract is intact, and any upcoming or pending negotiations will continue.
There will be an emergency Chapter meeting on December 4th. The time and location of the meeting will be announced – look out for a meeting notification. Please plan to attend so that we may answer questions and address your concerns. Administrator Walker and other critical member leaders and staff will attend to tell you what is going on in detail and to hear your concerns.
I hope this letter opens the lines of communication with you and your chapter leaders and will serve as an invitation to you to take charge of your work life and become an active player in these important changes. If you have any questions, or would like to get involved, please don’t hesitate to call Administrator Walker at:
In strength and unity,
CALIFORNIA SCHOOL EMPLOYEES ASSOCIATION
Adam Weinberger
Association President