Negotiations Continue with CSEA

The Long Beach Unified School District and the California School Employees Association have been negotiating a successor collective bargaining agreement since March 23, 2020. During that time, bargaining teams have met on 17 separate occasions for over 98 hours. As a result of this ongoing dialogue, tentative agreements have been reached on 20 separate sections of the contract.

The key proposal at issue is salary. The school district has offered the same raise provided and accepted by the Teachers Association of Long Beach and management employees. The District has offered a fair and competitive proposal that includes a combination of on-schedule retroactive raises totaling 3% over 2019-20 and 2020-21 and a one-time off-schedule raise of 2% for 2020-21. CSEA has asked for a significantly higher raise with 3% on-schedule for 2019-20 and 4% on-schedule for 2020-21. While the District recognizes the significant contributions of CSEA during these difficult times, the District is not able to responsibly agree to this offer if it is to remain fiscally solvent in the future.

The District’s offer is competitive and in many cases appreciably higher than what is being offered in most other districts. Including the current on-schedule salary offer, the District has increased employee salaries by 21% since 2013-14. In addition to these on-schedule raises, employees have received a total of 5% in off-schedule raises including the current 2% off-schedule offer. 

Informal Impasse Mediation

On Oct. 13, under the guidance of a California State Conciliation Service mediator approved by CSEA and the District, the parties participated in impasse mediation in an effort to resolve pending issues. Unfortunately, the District and CSEA were unable to reach an agreement. As a result, the state mediator recommended the parties proceed to the next step of the impasse process called factfinding to resolve their differences.

Factfinding

CSEA and the District have agreed to file a joint request for factfinding. Factfinding is a process overseen by the Public Employee Relations Board (PERB) that is implemented when both parties are at impasse and were unable to reach agreement during the initial mediation stage. 

During factfinding, CSEA and the District will present evidence relating to their position to a three-member panel consisting of one person selected by each party and a chairperson either selected by PERB or selected jointly by CSEA and the District. The panel is charged with coordinating the submission of relevant evidence and issuing findings and recommendations based on criteria outlined in the Government Code.

The factfinding panel will likely convene sometime in January. However, the panel may set earlier dates. Once timelines are established, updates will be distributed to employees.