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April 27, 2009

Peabody's smallest union lobbies for one

Stacie Galang

PEABODY — A union of one seems like an oxymoron, but the city’s smallest bargaining unit is just that.

“Unit D” is made up of one part-time worker under the Community Education Program, an evening program for adults housed at Peabody High and specializing in GED classes, said Peabody Federation of Teachers President Bruce Nelson.

The federation oversees Unit D and other units like teachers and paraprofessionals.

Unit D is one of seven in the School Department, and its union representatives are expected to meet with school negotiators in coming weeks.

Assistant City Solicitor Daniel Cocuzzo, a labor attorney for 10 years, said he had never heard of a union with just one employee. Before being hired in Peabody, he worked throughout New England for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees under the AFL-CIO.

The smallest of the unions he had worked with had about four members, and they were in less populated areas like western Massachusetts. Most of those unions had lost members by attrition, the assistant city solicitor said.

“Other than that I have not seen a union of one individual,” said Cocuzzo, who will be one of the school’s negotiators.

Prep Center

When Unit D formed in the late 1970s, it represented about 11 employees at the Prep Center, said retired Assistant City Solicitor Daniel Kulak.

In its heyday, when Peter Torigian was mayor, the Prep Center “was really something,” said Peabody High Principal Edward Sapienza.

“It was something they were very proud of,” he said.

But the Prep Center lost its $111,440 grant in August 2000 to the North Shore Community Action Programs, according to archived news stories.

“The grant was never filed in a timely manner,” said David Gravel, a former School Committee member and current city councilor. “What happened is we weren’t considered for that grant application.”

When the program lost its funding, the city lost the Prep Center as it was and its staff.

“It was a fairly sizable program,” Gravel said. “Unfortunately, they were doing at the time a lot of neat things with the program, with adult literacy.”

In 1997, for example, 124 students graduated from its GED course and another 190 earned certificates of completion at its annual graduation, according to archived news stories.

Kulak said the nature of Unit D changed without its funding.

“I’m surprised it lasted this long, to be honest with you,” he said.

Superintendent C. Milton Burnett described the program and its union as a “carryover from a previous bigger structure.” It’s still a union.

“Until it changes, then it’s there,” he said.

Community education today

Current director Amy Ballin said her office has three employees, although she was not sure who was in the union.

Ballin, who’s not in a union, works about six hours per week and receives a stipend.

The Community Education Program also employs about 20 nonunion teachers for its fall and spring courses.

The self-supporting program offers classes that run from $25 for a one-time course on managing college financial aid up to $270 for the nursing chemistry lab course, according to a program flier.

The Community Education Program also receives financial support from Salem Five and East Boston Savings banks, its brochure said.

Unit D’s contract expired in June 2007.

Under its terms, workers received a 3 percent raise in July 2006. The hourly salary ranges from $21.71 per hour to $23.83.

Their next contract will “fall in the same pattern” as the more influential and larger teachers union, Kulak said.

“They don’t have any power,” he said of Unit D’s relative sway at the bargaining table.

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