Amador County – At least one hundred members of the California School Employees Association, or CSEA, packed into the School board meeting to protest proposed layoffs within the Amador Unified School District. Under the proposal, Superintendent Dick Glock recommended the board vote to terminate eleven workers in the maintenance department. Eleven employees would be fired effective March 30, 2009, including nine maintenance and grounds workers, and two maintenance department clerical workers. Glock had announced to the union that he will rewrite job descriptions and give the positions new titles. Workers hired into the “new” jobs will reportedly do the same work as the fired workers, but at only 75 percent of the current pay. He said laid off workers would be allowed to apply for the “new” jobs, but will not be guaranteed they will be hired. CSEA maintains Glock’s plan violates the union contract and state law. The union gathered support for the protest during an emergency meeting Monday. During public comment Wednesday, union members made emotional pleas for the board to consider other options before rendering their decision. “In today’s economy, laying more people off isn’t the answer,” said Kelly Banyon, a union member and friend of one of the eleven maintenance workers on the list. Rose Roach, Field Director for CSEA Modesto Chapter 7, cautioned the Board to carefully consider the legal ramifications of such a decision. “We will do everything in our power to make sure our members are protected from any unfair, unequal treatment,” she said. The union maintains the proposal violates a number of existing laws, including the retitling of job positions, breach of contract, and the reassignment of employees from existing classifications to different or newly created classifications. “This battle is all of us together trying to save public education as we know it,” she said. Dennis Nelson, self described as “one of the workers on that list”, said he hoped there were other ways to discuss cutting costs. “I live in this community and have kids who grew up here,” he said. Randy Bayne, who is head of the Amador Democratic Central Committee and husband to CSEA Labor Representative Marcie Bayne, said “the decision to layoff is not negotiable, but the effects of the layoff are negotiable.” After an hour of closed session discussion, the Board reappeared and announced that they took no action on the decision and will continue the discussion in upcoming meetings. Story by Alex Lane