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A last-ditch attempt to avert a strike in the Hempfield Area School District has failed, clearing the way for a walkout of bus drivers, cafeteria workers and other support personnel.

Hempfield Area Educational Support Association will hit the picket lines Thursday morning after its negotiating committee Tuesday rejected a revised, five-year contract offer.

"We voted it down," said Joyce Omlor, union president. "All they did was rework the figures. They actually took money from the low tier in the first year."

The union has been working without a contract since June. It represents 80 bus drivers, 60 custodians, 55 food service workers and 45 nurse assistants, building and classroom aides, and paraprofessionals.

The major sticking point in talks has been a two-tier wage structure that has some employees earning up to $4.50 less per hour than their peers who perform the same job, according to the union. The union rejected a contract Nov. 21 and advised the district it would strike on Dec. 2.

Hempfield school directors on Monday approved a revised contract offer and forwarded it to the union's negotiating committee yesterday. Omlor had warned that unless the new offer adequately addressed the two-tier wage structure, the committee would not take the contract to its membership for a vote.

Omlor said although the revised contract included a provision that bumped up pay rates of low-tier employees 50 cents an hour after 10 years of service, the hike is too little to have much of an impact in eliminating pay disparities.

"Our goal is to bring the low tier closer to the high tier, and they didn't address that other than the 10-year, 50 cents, and that's just a few people," Omlor said, estimating 42 employees would be eligible for the 50-cent-per-hour raise over the length of the contract.

Omlor said hourly pay rates are less a concern to the union than the two-tier wage structure.

"The top tier is satisfied with their wages, but it's the fact they are not bringing us closer together," Omlor said. "The low tier is the majority, and they need to pay their bills."

The two-tier system was introduced approximately 12 years ago. A contract in existence at that time, Omlor said, called for lower-paid employees to be moved into the high tier after a dozen years of service. That provision, she said, was taken out of the contract that expired in June.

Omlor said the revised offer also took back portions of some raises made in earlier offers. In one instance, she said, the proposed pay raise for low-tier bus drivers in the first year of the contract was 30 cents less than in the earlier proposal. In another, she said, the new offer took back 45 cents in raises that earlier had been proposed over the first two years of the contract for paraprofessionals.

"The negotiating team took it as an insult," Omlor said.

Otherwise, Omlor said the revised contract was acceptable on other issues, including health insurance.

Betty Valerio, school board president, said the board felt the new offer had adequately addressed the two-tier wage structure, over time.

"We fixed that a little bit, but it wasn't going to happen overnight," Valerio said. "It was going to happen over five years. We asked them to wait. Why couldn't they wait?"

Valerio said the negotiating committee's call to go ahead with the strike on Thursday, instead of postponing it until Monday so the offer could be presented to its membership for a vote over the weekend, will have repercussions.

For one, she said, the district will no longer consider retroactive pay as an option when the two sides return to the table. She said the committee was warned in advance it risked losing that option if it went on strike Thursday.

She also questioned the committee's decision not to present the offer to its membership.

"Why wouldn't you take it to the group to vote on?" Valerio said. "Why would 11 people take that responsibility on? Whether you liked it or not, you could take it back and let the group decide. But they didn't give them a chance."

Another school director, Maria DiPiazza, said she wants to see the strike resolved quickly -- but not to the detriment of taxpayers.

"I certainly do hope we have a speedy resolution, but the union has to understand that we are under financial constraints at this time," DiPiazza said last night. "We only have so much money to work with, and we are trying to work within the realm of our budget. Any agreement has to be in the best interest of not only the union, but of the taxpayers and the students."

Valerio and DiPiazza, along with another director, Anthony Bompiani, said the strike will create the greatest hardship for parents and students, primarily because there will be no busing.

Valerio also pointed out that the township's recreation program will be shut down because most of its programs are held in the school district's gyms.

Bompiani, who was the only school director to vote against the revised proposal, said he was surprised the committee rejected the offer.

"I think it's crazy," he said. "They were given a lot."

Bompiani said he did not oppose the revised offer because he felt it offered the union too much, but rather because it fell short of addressing the needs of both sides.

"I just didn't like the makeup of the whole situation," he said. "I think give and take both ways wasn't handled. I just didn't feel it was the right thing put together."

Bompiani wouldn't discuss specifics of the revised offer, deferring comment to Superintendent Dr. Wayne Doyle. Doyle also declined to release details of the revised offer, but he said he had hoped the negotiating committee would have at least put the contract to its membership for a vote.

Schools will remain open during the strike. Parents must transport their children to and from classes. Students will have to carry their own lunches because cafeterias will not offer hot food during the walkout.

Each school has devised its own schedule for drop-off and pickup of students. Letters were sent to parents notifying them of their child's school's plans.

Building principals, assistant superintendents and other administrators will perform janitorial tasks during the walkout. Each already has been assigned to a building.

The district also has posted information on its Web site, which is located at www.hempfieldarea.k12.pa.us.

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