Issue link: http://educator.cta.org/i/1545867
" Winning fully paid health care had a transformational effect on our members. People were paying $1,700 a month for health care and now have that money to put into their families, buy food and have a standard of living that wasn't available to them before," WSTA President Knepp says. "Our new teachers were making $58,000 a year and health care was costing them $17,500 — health care was putting them under the poverty line. It's life-changing not to have to choose between burgers and band practice for your kids." Knepp credited the sudden movement on health care and agreement to the then-ongoing struggles in Natomas and Twin Rivers and the acknowledgement that indeed WSTA members were ready to join them to fight for what West Sac- ramento students and educators deserved. Ironically, WSTA didn't initially include fully paid health care in their proposal, adding it when Gov. Gavin Newsom announced there would be more public education funding than expected. Knepp said it was a risk, but they decided it was worth it. "In the end, everyone deserves to be appropriately taken care of in their work," says Knepp. "All we're asking for is to be compensated enough to take care of our families." Small Locals, Big Fights, Inspiring Wins The Santa Cruz area is the most expensive place to live in America, which compounded matters when Soquel Education Association (SEA) members saw their health care costs jump by as much as 70% from one school year to the next due to a hard cap that sets the district's health care contribution and forces educators to bear the burden of all increases. SE A President D-R . Martin says her insurance was set to increase from $575 to $940 a month, even with reduced coverage, a higher d educti bl e and more exp ensive prescription costs. "Some families are paying $2,200 a month out of pocket and others have $10,000 deductibles to pay less monthly," Martin says. "Our thinking before was if we increased our salary structure, we could apply extra income to health care costs but we didn't expect it to be so out of control like this." With members suffering, SEA asked for a $200 increase to their hard cap earlier this year — district admin responded with an offer of one-third of that and no salary increase. SEA members organized, rallying at board meetings and building a movement with their parents and community to keep SEA educators in Soquel — eventually winning a 3% salar y increase, a cost-of-living increase next year, a one-time bonus of $2,500 and the $200 increase to the health care cap. With health care costs anticipated to continue increasing, Martin says something must be done to stop Soquel's educator retention crisis. " When we did a survey in (the) fall , 47% said they were actively looking for other jobs, and we've lost a couple people already this year," Martin says. "I hope that we can put a spotlight on the importance of health care. We're less than 100 members and I hope that other small locals look at what we've done and say 'if they can put up a fight, so can we.' "Winning fully paid health care had a transformational effect on our members. People were paying $1,700 a month for health care and now can put that money into their families, buy food and have a standard of living that wasn't available to them before." —West Sacramento Teachers Assn. President Douglas Knepp 24 cta.org Feature