Update on the Relaunch of Unit 3’s 5.19.3 Committee

The SEIU Local 1000 Bargaining Unit (BU) 3 Team held our first meeting with the California Department of Human Resources (CalHR) of our Classification and Compensation Joint Labor Management Committee (Article 5.19.2 of our Contract) on March 9 2022, and used our first meeting as an opportunity to lift up some long-term concerns we have that impact our BU 3 educators at the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitations’ Office of Correctional Education (OCE). 

We wanted to share some information about the issues raised as well as some takeaways from our work with a new team on the State side. We wanted to take advantage of the collaborative nature of this Committee and remind the Department that the goal of making OCE a world-class education system as we brought up our concerns. At this meeting, we focused on concerns related to recruitment and retention of high quality staff, initial placement of staff on the salary schedule, movement of staff along the salary schedule, and the benefits of having just one salary schedule for all BU 3 educators.

These conversations included ideas that we have as to how to address these concerns, including taking a different view on what counts as a credential for vocational educators who bring years of professional experience with them, looking into creative ways to recruit new library staff, creating a path for Peer Literacy Mentor Program (PLMP) participants to employment positions after they are released, and heavily encouraging the Department to work collaboratively with rank-and-file educators on any planning and programming updates.

We were pleased that the new additions to OCE were very receptive to our ideas and had already taken some steps to address our long-term concerns about placement and movement across the salary schedule for all educators and would honor the experience brought to the Department by our Vocational Instructors as well. The Department had thoughtful responses to the issues raised in our discussion which was a breath of fresh air for us as we lift up concerns the Department has previously been dismissive of in its responses.

Our committee members are optimistic that working with the new OCE staff will help us to even more effectively advocate for our members, especially to enhance the few wins that we have already accomplished regarding salary schedule placement, including getting courses approved that moved towards a higher degree and the recognition of a credential issued outside of the United States.

Your BU 3 – 5.19.3 Committee standing members are: Sue Knapp (CMC), Barbara Guzman (CCCF), and Wendy Gallimore (CSP-Sacramento). BU 3 Chair Bob Holtz (CIM) participated as a Subject Matter Expert. 

Our next meeting is being scheduled for late April to continue discussions about continuing issues and concerns for the entire bargaining unit.

If you have a topic that you would like to have raised at an upcoming meeting, please send it to unit3@seiu1000.org