By Andrew Coen
Lawrence Facilities Management Association without contract for 4 1/2 years
Emotions ran high at the June 21 Lawrence school board meeting - the last featuring a majority of trustees from the public-school community - when the board approved new contracts for three union groups in the school district, with the Lawrence Teachers' Association deal causing the most controversy.
The meeting, held on the first official day of summer on a muggy night in a steamy Lawrence Middle School auditorium, produced tension throughout the night between board members from the public-school community and the soon-to-be majority of trustees from the Orthodox community. During the meeting, new contracts were approved for the teachers, district psychologists and Association of Lawrence Administrators.
However, lost in the shuffle during the meeting, which also featured an extension to superintendent Dr. John Fitzsimons's contract, was that the Lawrence Facilities Management Association (LFMA) would still be without a new contract four years after its prior contract expired.
Nearly six months after that June 21 meeting, the LFMA is still without a contract. The LFMA leadership held its first meeting with the new school board in late October and another is scheduled for November, but there is not much hope that a deal will be reached. This is the third new school board that has been voted in since the LFMA contract expired on June 20, 2002.
Joe Petrauskas, president of the LFMA, which consists of seven members including five head custodians, a groundskeeper and a network supervisor, said every time his group establishes what its needs are with the school board, the board undergoes a change in leadership, which is a big reason why he thinks a new deal has not been hammered out.
In addition to members of the school board changing three times since the LFMA contract expired, there has also been a shuffling of legal counsels from Minerva & D'Agostino to Ehrlich, Frazer & Feldman, and back to Minerva & D'Agostino, further complicating the negotiations, according to Petrauskas.
"We've been through another school board change and now we're back at ground zero," said Petrauskas.
Some of the stumbling blocks toward reaching an agreement, according to Petrauskas, are that his workers have not been adequately compensated for overtime. They also want to avoid any give-backs on health insurance, after the school board has
insisted that the workers' contributions should be increased from 15 to 18 percent.
Petrauskas said in the four-and-a-half years of negotiations they agreed to have a fact-finder deliver a report on the terms the union was seeking. In the fact-finder report, delivered on March 23, 2006, it was suggested that the district meet the union's demands of small increases each year through 2008 and do away with the district's past practice of "merit pay." The report also said that the LFMA should increase its health insurance contributions from 15 to 18 percent but union leaders have argued that the 15 percent they are paying is more than most pay in Nassau County.
Despite the report's suggestions, it did not lead to any progress toward a deal, according to Petrauskas.
Lawrence school board President Dr. Asher Mansdorf said he could not go into specifics of the current negotiations, but said he was perplexed that the previous school board did not reach a deal like it did with the other unions just prior to the end of the school year.
"That board rushed through contracts and made several promises before the new board [took over] but could not reach an agreement with the [LFMA]," said Mansdorf.
Petrauskas said despite his members working since June 2002 without the security of a new contract, morale is still strong. "The guys are still working, doing their best," said Petrauskas. "[We just] want a fair deal."
Comments about this story? Acoen@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 210.
