When Local 888’s school cafeteria, maintenance and clerical chapters were notified about looming layoffs, they fired off letters of protest.

Randolph School Committee members are “targeting their lowest-paid employees and inflicting economic hardship upon them during this national crisis,” said Lisa Routson, of the school cafeteria chapter. “The governor and the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education both recommended and encouraged school committees to continue to pay their hourly workers. Instead, Randolph has decided to punish their most vulnerable employees.”

In the end, the three chapters were able to use their union grievance and bargaining rights to reach an agreement with the Randolph School Committee that members were happy with — at least given the health crisis that grips the country.

Local 888 members were given the choice of moving to a 30-hour-per-week schedule or a furlough with Randolph schools paying the employer part of the health insurance while the employee is on furlough.

For more information on bargaining during the COVID-19 crisis, email rwilson@seiu888.org