KANE — By an overwhelming vote, secretaries, paraprofessionals, administrative assistants and aides in the Kane public school district voted to form a local union affiliated with the Pennsylvania State Education Association and the National Education Association.
The secret ballot mail election was conducted by the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board (PLRB) from Feb. 28 to March 18. The ballots were counted on March 19 at the PLRB headquarters in Pittsburgh.
The new union, the Kane Education Support Professionals Association, will include 43 bargaining unit members, including paraprofessionals, secretaries, administrative assistants and aides. The Kane Area Education Association, which represents the district’s 88 teachers, has been affiliated with PSEA-NEA since 1971.
“We are so pleased to have the Kane support staff as part of the PSEA family. Our goal is to ensure that KESPA members have legal and employment security and are respected and compensated fairly for the important work that they do for our community. They deserve to have a voice in decisions that impact their jobs,” said Lucy Harlow, PSEA regional advocacy coordinator. “The support staff’s working conditions are the children’s learning conditions.”
The next step for the new union is to meet to elect officers and to put together a constitution and bylaws and to elect leaders. Once a leadership team is in place, the new union can begin work to start bargaining a first contract with the school district.
PSEA represents more than 31,000 support staff in the state. There are more than 180,000 PSEA members in Pennsylvania. The union campaign began in October 2018 and a petition for an election was sent to the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board in December 2018.
“The support staff in Kane are among only a few in this region who are not already unionized with PSEA. It is exciting that they can now join our other members in this region and statewide for trainings and events that will empower them in their careers,” Harlow said. “These are the employees who keep our public schools operating efficient and who work closely with our children each day. They are there each day supporting teachers in their jobs. They are dedicated and committed to our children and our community and they deserve to be respected for the hard work that they do each day in our public schools.”
