By Kristen A. Graham

– The School Reform Commission voted Thursday night to outsource more than 1,000 substitute-teaching jobs, awarding a $34 million contract to a Cherry Hill firm to recruit, hire, and manage the workers for two years.

The unanimous vote came over the protests of the teachers’ union, which currently represents subs.

Jerry Jordan, president of the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers, vowed legal action, including a possible claim of unfair labor practices, and said the move was part of a plan to “privatize public education, one position at a time.”

Superintendent William R. Hite Jr. and the SRC, Jordan said in a statement, “used the shortage of substitutes as an excuse to abdicate their responsibilities to provide services to students.” The union said the district had allowed substitute vacancies to go unfilled to save money.

On average, every day 407 district classrooms have no substitute teacher, district officials said. (When no substitute is present, other teachers must cover the class.) Source 4 Teachers, the company awarded the contract, has promised a 90 percent “fill rate,” well above the district’s current 55 to 65 percent rate.

“That’s significantly impacting student instruction time, and it’s impacting teachers that have to sacrifice their planning and prep time to fill in for these absent teachers,” said Naomi Wyatt, the district’s human resources chief.

Though the privatization is fiercely opposed by the union and has drawn fire from City Council, there was little mention of it by speakers at the meeting. Several school nurses testified about the possible outsourcing of school medical services, including their jobs.

Michele Perloff, a veteran school nurse, decried the “debacle that is unfolding.”

“I ask you not to sell off our dedicated school nurses,” Perloff said. She and others said privately employed nurses would not understand schools the way they do, and that the relationships they have built with students affect not just health but also education.

Sporting a button reading “Every child deserves a certified school nurse every day,” retired teacher Lisa Haver decried the possible outsourcing of nurses. After the meeting, she also spoke out against privatizing subs.

“Any time you outsource services, you lose quality of the services,” said Haver. “There’s not really any accountability.”

Commissioner Bill Green said that privatizing the jobs was not a given, and that if nurses were outsourced, all would still have to have the same certifications.

The district wants “more and better” services for children, Green said.

The SRC also formally signed off on five new charters – Independence West (West Philadelphia), KIPP DuBois (West Philadelphia), Mastery-Gillespie (North Philadelphia), TECH Freire (North Philadelphia), and MaST Community Charter School II (Northeast Philadelphia).

Chairwoman Marjorie Neff, who also opposed the new charters initially, cast the only no vote.

Each school was awarded a three-year charter.

The SRC also approved closing a district school.

Kensington Urban Education Academy High School will close in 2016, merging with Kensington Business, Finance, and Entrepreneurship High School. The closure was supposed to take effect this week, but officials bowed to community pressure and said they would use the extra year to plan the transition.

Officials have said the merger is necessary to offer more courses and bolster student achievement.

Nadia Watson, a student at Kensington Business and a member of the organizing group Youth United for Change, noted that Kensington Urban opened just five years ago.

The district “didn’t give Urban the resources they needed to be a successful school,” Watson said.

Watson upbraided the SRC for turning its back on the community, to whom it promised four small high schools in Kensington.

“No matter what happens, we will not stop fighting for our small schools,” said Watson, a rising senior. “They were built for a reason and they should not be messed up.”

Source – http://www.philly.com/philly/education/20150619_SRC_approves__34M_deal_to_outsource_substitutes__union_vows_challenge.html#q1heTKgwHL8FrxKX.99

By The PA. AFL-CIO

– Please call or email your member of Congress to Vote No on the Entire Trade Package which includes Fast Track and TAA

We thank you for helping defeat the trade package on Friday June 12 however U.S. House Speaker Boehner has called for a re-vote which will likely happen this afternoon or tomorrow. We won an important victory on Friday and now it is time for us to finish the job. We need you to contact your representatives again and tell them to Vote No on Fast Track and on the inadequate Trade Adjustment Assistance, (TAA).

Use this toll free number, 1-855-712-8441, to call your Representative or CLICK HERE to send an email message to your member of Congress.

Source – http://www.paaflcio.org/?p=6010

By The PA. AFL-CIO

– Pennsylvania AFL-CIO President Rick Bloomingdale and Secretary-Treasurer Frank Snyder issued the following statement after the U.S. House of Representatives Fails to Advance the package of bad trade bills

Harrisburg, PA – Pennsylvania AFL-CIO President Rick Bloomingdale and Secretary-Treasurer Frank Snyder called today’s vote on the trade package a pivotal day in slowing down Fast Track and bad trade deals.

“We thank the members of Pennsylvania’s Congressional delegation who had the integrity to stand with working families and voted against the bad trade package and we are very disappointed with those members who voted to send our jobs out of the country,” President Bloomingdale said.

“The fact that we were able to slow it down is a testament to a monumental grassroots effort waged by union members, who refuse to be fooled that these free trade policies are somehow good for America. We must continue calling our members of Congress to defeat bad trade policies and support fair trade that protects jobs, raises the wages and the living standards of workers and communities here in Pennsylvania and across the nation,” Secretary-Treasurer Snyder said.

“This fight is not over, it’s just beginning, and we encourage our members and our allies to continue telling their elected officials to vote no on bad trade deals,” Bloomingdale said.

Source – http://www.paaflcio.org/?p=6008

By The Pa. AFL-CIO

– The Pennsylvania Apprentice Coordinators Association, in conjunction with the Building Trades Unions held the 4th Annual Apprenticeship Awareness Day in the Main Rotunda at the State Capitol Building on June 9. The Building Trades Unions, represented by the nearly 1,000 workers present, provided around 250 million dollars for the five-year training programs. This year alone, there are over 10,000 apprentices in Pennsylvania, as well as 14 new programs. State Senator Christina Tartaglione referred to the apprentices as “the heartbeat of the commonwealth.”

Many were present in the Capitol, including Frank Sirianni, the President of the Pennsylvania Building and Construction Trades Council, Kathy Manderino, the Pennsylvania Secretary of Labor and Industry, State Senator Andrew Dinniman, Robert O’Brien, the Deputy Secretary of the Department of Labor and Industry, State Representative Gene DiGirolamo, Rick Bloomingdale, Pennsylvania AFL-CIO President, Frank Snyder, Pennsylvania AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer, and multiple others. Natalie Holzer, shown in the picture, shared her job-hunting preceding college, and how gaining an apprenticeship at the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades helped to turn her life around. The speakers provided their support as well as stressing the importance of the apprenticeship programs. The Pennsylvania union apprentice members are known for being some of the most highly paid, highly productive, cost-effective, and safest workers.

Source – http://www.paaflcio.org/?p=6005

By The PA. AFL-CIO

PA. AFL-CIO President Bloomingdale was asked during his testimony on Senate Bill 1 before the State House Government Committee, that if S.B. 1 isn’t the solution to the pension debt what is the solution? Without hesitation he replied, “pay your bills”, which is what we are all expected to do when we borrow on our credit cards.

Workers never missed a payment to fund their defined benefit pensions, but the Legislature paid less than they were supposed to according to the Arnold Foundation and Pew Center. Instead of making the proper payments into the pension funds, the state spent the money on other priorities. The money was borrowed from the pension funds and catch-up payments must now be made.

Workers fulfilled their obligations and never missed a payment to ensure they would have a decent retirement. And when they were asked to make additional sacrifices to protect their defined benefit pensions, they did so by agreeing to pay more into their pension for less benefits under the changes agreed by all stakeholders in Act 120 of 2010.

Now it is time for our legislators to “Pay the Bill” and stop trying to sidestep the issue or make the problem worse by destroying the good pensions of hundreds of thousands of current and future school and state workers, which is what Senate Bill 1 will do.

That was the strong and unanimous message delivered by the delegation of union leaders including: AFSCME Council 13 Executive Director David Fillman; PSEA President Mike Crossey; and Pennsylvania FOP Recording Secretary Joseph Regan who also presented testimony to the panel on June 4.

Be ready to Take Action on Pensions, the State Budget, Modernization of Wine and Spirits, Paycheck Deception and Prevailing Wage as legislators work on the budget in the next few weeks.