From Livable Wage March and Rally, April 12, 2003
By Cindy Bubrouski
Hello! I'm Cindy Bubrouski. I'm an Instructional Assistant at Montpelier High School and have worked in that district for six years. I am also the president and chief negotiator of our VTNEA local, the Montpelier Educational Support Staff Association.
Instructional Assistants (or paraprofessionals) perform a wide variety of educational support services, from providing individual and small group instruction, to personal care. Every day, we do our best to educate students who are cognitively, physically, emotionally, or behaviorally challenged. Many of us are trained in facilitative communication, or have received specialized training to teach reading and writing. Many of us assist classroom teachers, and many of us provide direct instruction. All of us know how challenging our jobs are.
Historically, school districts have seen fit to devalue our work. For too long we have been an invisible workforce, the "orphans" of the school districts. Paraprofessionals across the state have been caught up in a web of low wages, and nonexistent or unaffordable healthcare benefits. We have seen our job responsibilities continue to grow, but not our wages and benefits.
Most school districts still offer starting wages more than $3.00 an hour BELOW the State of Vermont's Joint Fiscal Office's newest 2003 Livable Wage figure of $11.58 an hour. Keep in mind, that figure represents a single person working a full-year, and receiving employer- assisted health benefits. Most paras are not offered affordable health benefits, and are forced to rely on Vermont's public assistance services. This is a disgrace, and a slap in the face to hardworking, dedicated educators. Who ends up paying for the benefits that school districts withhold from their paraprofessionals? We all do!
A 1995 Occupational Wages report, from the Central Vermont Chamber of Commerce, illustrates how paraprofessional hourly wages have not kept pace with inflation. The average wage for a "teacher's aide" in 1995 was $8.60. That was almost 8 years ago! Now I ask you, how many of your school districts still pay their paras that $8.60 (or less) as a starting wage? It's shameful! Paraprofessionals deserve a livable wage that provides for the basic necessities!
What can we do? Friends, first of all, if your district's paras aren't organized, form an association and get on board with VTNEA! It is time to head to the collective bargaining table with your school board! If you are already organized, remember this above all else when you begin bargaining, START WITH THE LIVABLE WAGE AS YOUR BASE! $11.58! Know that what you settle for will not only effect your district's paraprofessionals, but will reverberate with every paraprofessional statewide. Stay strong. Begin and continue Livable Wage campaigns in your districts. Support one another. We are all in this together. As long as one paraprofessional earns a poverty wage, we are ALL the poorer for it! Vermont's school support staff deserve a respectable, livable wage!
Thank you.
Cindy Bubrouski is president of the Montpelier Educational Support Staff Association
Livable Wage Rally Speech
The Livable Wage Battle Hymn
(to the tune of "Battle Hymn of the Republic")
Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the day
When we won't just work for peanuts
We will work for decent pay
So it's time to stop complaining
And draw action from our rage
In the fight for a livable wage
CHORUS:
Come, let's join the great big chorus
No one else will do it for us
And we know we'll win the day
In our fight for decent pay
Cause the union makes us strong
We know our work is valuable
Our bosses know it too
And the workers who we stand beside
Depend on what we do
In our jobs and our communities
We're just like super glue
Cause the union makes us strong
CHORUS
Well they say the times are tough out there
That taxes are too high
But we also pay those taxes
And watch health bills go sky-high
We're not asking for a free lunch
But we want our piece of pie
And the union makes us strong
CHORUS
(sung at April 12, 2003 Livable Wage March in Burlington)
Vermonters Need Livable Wages and a Fair Economy
April, 2003 Op-Ed in Burlington Free Press
By James Haslam, Director, Vermont Workers' Center
Vermont's working people are facing the greatest economic crisis in recent memory. Workers in Vermont and around the country are working harder, longer, and more productively than ever before, and yet we are being laid-off by profitable companies, asked to shoulder the costs and risks of health care, and watching our retirement savings being ripped off by unscrupulous corporate criminals. And while failing corporations like the airlines get bailed out with public money, laid-off workers whose unemployment benefits have run out see only cuts to the social programs that help us heat our homes, afford our rent, and feed our children.
In the midst of all these problems, working people need for our political and community leaders to stand up and confront this recession with programs and policies that make the lives of workers better, not worse. We need economic stimulus that puts money in the pockets of workers, who will spend it and boost the local economy, rather than the pockets of the very wealthiest members of our society. We need a universal health care system which covers everyone rather than continued attempts to shift the costs and risks of health care onto workers. And we need an adequate social safety net so that economic downturns do not push workers into bankruptcy, homelessness and despair.
During the Great Depression, workers, seniors and religious leaders stood up to demand that the government confront the economic crisis. The resulting legislation - Social Security, the Fair Labor Standards Act (which created the minimum wage), and the National Labor Relations Act (which legalized collective bargaining) - combined with public works spending, came to be known as the New Deal. The New Deal eased the immediate crisis by putting money in workers' pockets, pushed the country toward recovery, and insured that recovery, when in came, benefited working people.
Now is the time for working people and community members to mobilize to demand change. We need to support workers in the K-12 schools, at our nursing homes, hospitals, universities and grocery stores, who are standing up for livable wages. We need to insist that our political leaders work towards a fair economy by creating livable wage jobs, guaranteeing health care for all, and preserving an adequate social safety net. Come to the March for Livable Wages and a Fair Economy in Burlington on April 12th, because united, we can make our economy a fair economy for all.