Counselors in Espanola Won a Big Grievance Last Month!

In today’s challenging environment, here is a testament to the power and value of maintaining a strong, collective voice…

Counselors in Espanola won a big grievance last month! After the end of the last school year, the Superintendent announced she would transfer all Counselors throughout the District. The Counselors organized themselves as a group, and with help from their local leadership, filed a grievance. After delays and a hearing which resulted in a continuation of the planned transfers, NEA-NM and Espanola-NEA filed for Arbitration with the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service.

The District then rescinded their transfer decision in a memo which acknowledged their failure to follow transfer processes included in the Collective Bargaining Agreement. They called Counselors into a meeting July 27, 2010 to discuss assignments for 2011-2012. Apprehensive that the District might try to simply do the proper process to accomplish the wrong thing (the original transfer assignments), the Counselors presented concerns for the impact of transfers on the students. In the end, the District assigned them all to school locations of their choice. Some stayed where they've been and some moved to other locations they were happy to be relocated to.

"This is a huge victory for the students, the community, all union members and especially for the counselors," said John Reese, Espanola-NEA President.