Several of the Union City Board of Education employees who had their salary increment held during the last board meeting on June 20 charged that politics played a part in the decision.
The board voted to withhold the increments of 12 employees, including four custodians, two teacher’s aides, one tech specialist, one clerk, one plumber, and three cleaning persons.
These employees will have the chance to appeal the board’s decision after they receive a letter detailing the reason that their increment was withheld.
Never discussed
The biggest complaint that Johanna Velasquez, a clerk at Emerson High School, had regarding her increment being withheld is that she was never given the chance to discuss her situation.
“I feel this is very unjust,” said Velasquez. “I don’t even have the right to discuss this, publicly or privately.”
The 12 increments were voted on by the board as part of the consent agenda without any public discussion.
However, according to board attorney Herbert Klitzner, the employees will get the chance to appeal the board’s decision.
Klitzner said that within 10 days of the meeting date, each of the employees will receive a letter notifying them of the reason for their increment being withheld. After they receive that letter they can appeal.
“All the things that a person can get fired for are reasons that they can have their increment withheld,” said Carl Johnson, the board secretary, adding that excessive absenteeism and inefficiency are two examples of reasons for the increment being withheld. “This is done first as a warning.”
Johnson said that if the behavior continues until the next year, then the employee can get fired.
Velasquez believes that her increment was withheld for political reasons. “Because I don’t work politically,” said Velasquez, who recently gave birth to her fourth child. “That is why they did this to me.”
Where can we go for help?
Some of the individuals who attended last week’s meeting said they feel the Union City Education Association, the union for all Board of Education employees, does not adequately represent them.
“The problem is when an employee has to defend themselves and there is basically no union at this point,” said Sabino Valdes, a plumber with the Board of Education. “There hasn’t been a union since [Union City Mayor Brian] Stack has been in office.”
“People are paying for unions and no one is representing them,” added Valdes, who is currently suspended with pay.
However, Jerry Caputo, the executive director of Facilities and School Safety at the board and vice president of the union, said that the union has to represent all of its members.
“If we didn’t represent them, we could be sued,” said Caputo, who was also criticized at the meeting for his political involvement with the Stack’s municipal election campaign. “We have a duty to represent them.”
Caputo was heavily involved with Stack’s municipal campaign during the recall election on former Mayor Raul “Rudy” Garcia in October 2000, and the recent campaign in May. Caputo is also an administrator with the Board of Education, which some believe may also be a conflict of interest.
It is not a conflict of interest because the union in Union City has had an all-inclusive union since it first began 32 years ago, which allows all Board of Education employees to become members of the union, including the superintendent.
“If you pay dues, you have to be represented,” said Caputo, adding that he has never been clouded politically in his position as vice president of the union.
“The union didn’t even help us in any way,” said Javier Garces, a custodian whose increment was withheld. Garces said that he has felt that the union wasn’t giving adequate representation long before his increment was withheld.