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MEA Voice— October, 2008

Pickney custodians land first contract as MEA members

Shortly after voting to join MEA - and before they negotiated their first contract - Pickney custodians were threatened with privatization.

With assistance from MEA, the 31 custodians fought back - and won. Two weeks before school started they retained their jobs and settled a 2 year contract.

"Those people really stepped up to the plate to stay employed by the school district," said Amy Gross, a Pickney custodian. refering to her colleagues who agreed to contractual changes to help the district make ends meet.

Pickney had experience with privatization. Several years earlier the district hired an outside company to clean and maintain the facilities. Dissatisfied with that company the district decided to bring back those jobs in house. When privatization was proposed again, the custodians reminded school officials and the community about the pitfalls of privatization.The MEA provided expert counsel to manage the crisis and financial aid for community relations.

There was considerable savings keeping the custodians on staff. The custodians helped the district save $430,000: they saved the distrct $100,000 by implementing smarter work stategies.

"We are still Pickney Pirates," said Gross, who has 25 years' experience in the district.

From the CMC President, Richard Green

Hello and welcome to the Custodial, Maintenance and Cafeteria website (CMC./MEA/NEA).

The CMC is a part of the Farmington/Farmington Hills community and has the responsibility to provide a clean, safe, and healthy environment for the students and staff of the Farmington Public School District. We currently have two hundred and six members in our unit and their dedication and pride in their work continue to make our District one of the Premier Districts in the State of Michigan. Our staff has experience ranging from recently hired to more than forty years and we continue to learn, grow, and expand on our abilities to perform and improve our function within the District. Through annual trainings, new product research and a cooperative relationship with the District Administrators combined with our interactions with the Community, parents, other staff and the students all help us to be more efficient at performing our job functions.

This staff understands that the education of our children is the first priority of any successful school district and we hope that through a continuing collaborative relationship with the parents and community we will be able to continue the necessary support to aid in providing that quality education to our children.

It is our sincere hope that you will find this website useful.

Sincerely,
Richard A. Green- President
Farmington C.M.C.-MEA/NEA

FPS Support Person of the Year

Farmington, Michigan — Farmington Public Schools announced on Tuesday, March 14, that Mary Perkins had been named the 2005-2006 Support Person of the Year for Farmington Public Schools.
Superintendent Sue Zurvalec surprised Mary at Flanders Elementary School, where she is the cafeteria manager. She has been an employee of the District for 26 1/2 years. Mary was selected by a committee composed of staff members, including eight past winners, and the presidents of the support staff unions. All employees other than administrators, teacher bargaining unit members and supervisors are eligible for nomination. Her nomination form states: "Mary is such a wonderful staff member. She is kind to everyone and always has nice things to say." Another staff member writes, "Her attitude and outlook on her job is the same today as it was the first day that she started." Included in the nomination packet were pages from each class at Flanders stating how much they supported the nomination of Mary for Support Person of the Year.

Last updated: 10/11/2008