"They’re trying to bust our union by moving out all those people in one fell swoop," said Frank Bolden, president of Council of School Officers Local 4. "It would slice our union membership just about in half and that would literally destroy our union."

The local, an affiliate of the American Federation of School Administrators and the AFL-CIO, represents about 500 principals and other mid-level supervisory employees of D.C. Public Schools (DCPS).

Bolden said officials want to make it easier to fire or reassign 200-230 principals and other school employees by eliminating their grievance rights contained in the union’s contract.

"They feel they are hamstrung by due process, but removal for cause can be done under the contract as long as due process is followed," he said.

School officials did not respond to a request for comment.

Bolden said school officials made the proposal at the end of January as part of negotiations for a new contract to replace the one that expired last Oct. 1. He said the proposal has stalled negotiations "because everything is contingent on getting this one issue resolved."

The principals’ union has been rallying support from other DCPS unions and the AFL-CIO for what Bolden said he expects to be a political fight in the halls of Congress, which has ultimate jurisdiction over the District. He alleged that the D.C. Board of Education and D.C. City Council are working behind the scenes to get Congress to strip the union’s membership as a minor part of other legislation, rather than making the move themselves.

"They want to circumvent the Public Employee Relations Board," Bolden charged.

Eleanor Holmes Norton, the District’s non-voting delegate to Congress, said it is "far-fetched" to think that Congress would involve itself in any locality’s union dispute.

"That is a goner. That will never stick," Norton said.

Meanwhile, the dispute also is holding up raises for school principals, whose salaries already lag significantly behind those of their suburban counterparts. At the same time, school officials have in recent years increased building principals’ responsibilities and have been putting considerable effort into trying to attract more top-flight talent.

Bolden said about 200 members showed up at a union meeting about the dispute two weeks ago and that many expressed dissatisfaction with Mayor Anthony A. Williams for "leaving them out" when he recently called for 20 percent raises for teachers during his State of the District address.

"The mayor wants to see teachers get 20 percent over three years – and they got 19 percent over three years in their new contract – but he didn’t suggest any such raise for our members," Bolden said.

Local 4’s last contract provided 13-13.5 percent raises over a three-year period, Bolden said. Still, he said, the highest-paid D.C. principals – with a Ph.D. – earn $90,300 a year, compared with average principal salaries that are $13,000 to $18,000 higher in Montgomery, Fairfax and Arlington counties.

"Our people are at the bottom of the totem pole," Bolden said.

Copyright 2002, The Common Denominator