The Long Beach Unified School District and the union that represents its non-teacher employees reached a tentative labor agreement that includes 4.5% raises stretching back to last year, according to statements released this week from the LBUSD and the California School Employees Association.
The agreement comes just weeks after the state office of the California School Employees Association removed the Long Beach chapter’s leadership, saying they failed to negotiate in good faith on behalf of their members.
In a message to membership Monday, CSEA state administrator Kellyanna Miller wrote, “It is with great pleasure that I announce that we have reached a Tentative Agreement with the Long Beach Unified School District. During our site visits across the District, we heard you loud and clear. You did not want a drawn-out negotiations process and you wanted a competitive raise.”
The agreement includes a 4.5% raise for CSEA members retroactive to July 2021, and a one-time 2.5% payment based on 2021-22 earnings. The agreement also includes an increase in travel expense allowance for Catalina Island employees, per a district bargaining update.
“The school district is grateful to the state CSEA organization and their regional field office for their collaborative efforts on the tentative agreement in recent days,” said the district update.
The agreement will have to be ratified by CSEA membership in the coming weeks, at which point it would go to the LBUSD Board of Education for final approval.
The proposed raise is in line with the raise given to teachers in May.
The Long Beach chapter of the CSEA is the second-largest union for the LBUSD, the city’s largest employer, and represents more than 2,100 non-teacher employees including bus drivers, nutrition workers and maintenance staff.
The union is seeking nominations for new leadership, which will be voted on at its December meeting. In the meantime, it’s under the stewardship of state administrator Miller.
The chapter is also preparing to open negotiations for the 2022-23 school year.