More employees at the South Bend Community School Corporation are unionizing. The school board Wednesday agreed to recognize bilingual educational specialists and full-time building security staff as unions, represented by Teamsters Local 364.
There was a question of whether the security staff had the required majority to unionize. Teamsters representative John Dowell believed he had enough support.
"We have 29 that have signed cards," Dowell told board members. "We have about 12 more that have committed to sign cards, and we have about seven that I haven’t even spoken to, yet."
Still, that appeared to be one signature short, leading to a heated discussion, until district officials clarified that the total number of building security staff is currently 54, not 59.
Dowell noted that the two unions could end up getting combined into a larger group, during contract negotiations. "Most likely. We still have to sit down at the table and bargain over it," Dowell said.
The school board recognized unions for instructional assistants and kindergarten aides, back in April.
