LIUNA Reaches Labor Pact for Special Ed Aides

The Board of Education and members of LIUNA which represents the instructional aides for special education students and school security officers have reached a tentative three-year agreement.

Details on the agreement have not been released by either school or officials of the Local 136 of the Laborer's International Union of North America (LIUNA). The agreement will replace the terms of the three-year pact that expired June 30, 2010.

LIUNA President Bill McCormick said Monday that the union membership will receive details on the pact and vote on it at an April 14 meeting. “I am bound by law and would rather not discuss any details until we present it to our membership,” McCormick said.

The pact covers 185 para-professionals of the 400-member union who work with special education students and provide school security, according to McCormick.

The announcement of the agreement was made Thursday by Board of Education member Peter Sherr, who serves on the board’s labor committee. Once the contract is ratified it must then be voted on by the Board of Education and the Representative Town Meeting.

“They take care of our most vulnerable students,” he said. “It was a difficult negotiation but with the help of a mediator we were able to come to an agreement,” Sherr said of the six-month-long process.

“We were candid about the fiscal challenges facing the Town of Greenwich and the needs of employees," Sherr said.