CHULA VISTA— Head Start employees, who provide early childhood education to low-income families, continue to fight for income equality despite an arbitration ruling against their employer Maximizing Access to Advance our Communities (MAAC) which cites significant disparities between the wages of new and veteran employees as a major contract violation.
The issue began in November 2010 when the MAAC Project took over the Head Start services of the Community Development Institute (CDI) and offered positions at the MAAC Project to CDI employees. Former CDI employees were hired at compensation rates significantly higher than existing MAAC employees with comparable education and experience. The arbitrator noted the creation of an arbitrary two-tiered pay system as a major violation of the collective bargaining agreement and has forced MAAC back in to bargaining with employees, represented by SEIU Local 221, to find a mutually agreeable solution. “Our hope is that this victory will force MAAC to reconsider the value of veteran teachers. We want to be treated fairly- not penalized for our commitment and experience,” said Liliana Camarena, Vice President of the MAAC Chapter and member of the SEIU Local 221 Executive Board.
Under the new system, veteran employees are responsible for training new hires and sometimes even their supervisors while being paid much less. Ten-year Head Start veteran Adela Martinez shared her concern over the impact of this discrepancy on Head Start students “Continuing with this two-tiered system will drive experienced teachers out of the classroom. Our students deserve quality teachers who work hard to provide a strong and competitive education. We are just asking that they level the playing field and compare apples to apples.”
To date, MAAC has offered two remedies: to continue with the two-tiered system or slash wages across the board – sometimes by more than five dollars per hour. New and veteran workers are standing in solidarity and imploring MAAC to equalize wages by compensating all employees at the same level as the freshman staff. “Failing to resolve this wage disparity issue has created a system which devalues committed teachers and diminishes the ability of educators to act as a unified body and focus on what they are there for: to teach our children. If MAAC really wanted to improve the San Diego County community, they would compensate these employees fairly and let them do their jobs,” said Eric Banks, SEIU 221 President.