The school custodians, maintenance workers and groundskeepers in New Fairfield, Connecticut were prepared for some tough bargaining as 2009 approached. Their current contract was set to expire on June 30, and the town has a long history of making negotiations difficult.

So when the members of UE Local 222, Sub-local 9, elected their bargaining committee last fall, they got to work immediately with bargaining surveys, small group sessions and general membership meetings, well before the time when they’d sit down with the Board of Education (BOE.) But it was not just a members’ “wish list” they were putting together. They were making plans to mobilize the workers, and to be ready to do something different than they had in the past to win their demands.

“Wages, wages, wages” said UE Field Organizer John Woodruff, who also served as the spokesperson and lead negotiator for the sublocal. “This has always been one of the wealthier communities in the state, but is near the bottom in the hourly pay rates of its support staff.”

The committee proposed to the superintendent of schools a substantial wage increases, but they also had a reasonable basis for their demand. Under the union’s proposal, three years from now New Fairfield members would be close to the hourly rates that UE school custodians in the nearby city of Danbury are earning right now.

“They thought we were kidding at first” said John Woodin, president of the sub-local, “But we made it clear to them in bargaining that we were very serious about making major wage gains in this contract.”

The school district had plans of its own, for radical changes in the design of members’ healthcare plan, and to nearly triple the amount that the workers paid for it. “Our members would have taken a huge leap backward under that proposal, and that was not the direction they wanted their committee to lead them” said Woodruff.

Both sides brought many other proposals as well. But at the same time the BOE and the union were negotiating, the school district was also haggling with the town over the district’s finances. New Fairfield, like many towns and cities in Connecticut, wanted its school system to operate this year with the same exact budget as last year. Such demands, faced by other schools districts in Connecticut whose workers are represented by UE Local 222, mean the schools must choose between paying negotiated wages and benefits, and eliminating programs, services and staff.

The BOE ultimately made an offer to the union to extend the current contract for one more year with a 1.5 percent general wage increase on July 1, 2009. Everything else under the current agreement would stay the same, including the health insurance.

The committee knew that did not even begin to address their wage inequities, but in light of the budget debate in town, and all the other issues with the economy, they felt that if the insurance stayed the same, they could bring it to a vote provided the district agreed to no layoffs as well.

The district agreed to a no-layoff clause, and the members ultimately ratified the one-year extension agreement after much debate and discussion.

“It was nowhere near what our members need to start making up lost ground on their low wages here” said Woodruff. “But these negotiations came at the same time the economy was a wreck. Our members decided that keeping the health insurance completely unchanged for another year, with no lay-offs to worry about, was worth it.”

Woodin agreed, saying that the members of his sub-local “work hard year in and year out doing the best that they can to keep the schools clean, safe and well-maintained. It is only fair for them to be closer to other districts in what they earn for the work that they do.”

The UE bargaining committee consisted of John Woodin, Dan Bowen, Tom Cossack (steward), Ron Evans (treasurer) and Marty Goodman. They were assisted by UE Field Organizers John Woodruff and Colleen Ezzo.