Public has option to comment on union’s concerns tonight
Unhappy with a loss in pay, the teachers union will begin the arduous process of renegotiating its contract at tonight’s school board meeting.
The Santa Monica Malibu Classroom Teachers Association filed its initial proposal for 2001-2002 negotiations in October. According to state law, the union must publicly present the issues they want to discuss and allow residents to make comments.
The school district must then post a similar proposal and submit to a public hearing. When completed, the two sides go into private negotiations for a multi-year contract. Only after both sides come to an agreement is the new contract shown to the public.
“The specifics of negotiations take place at the table. I don’t believe negotiations should take place at a school board meeting and I’m highly critical of anyone who tries to do that,” said Harry Keiley, president of the teachers’ union. “By law, our proposal and the district’s proposal need to be (open to the public). But the specifics (of the negotiations) take place at the table.”
In its proposal, the union asks for higher teacher salaries, class size reductions, better safety and working conditions, more child development teachers, adult education teachers, increasing health and welfare benefits, and a discussion of assigned days and work hours.
“Unions have traditionally negotiated issues that pertain to salary and working conditions. Those are historically what unions negotiate,” said Keiley. “At the same time the union is now trying to become more involved in negotiating teacher quality and student achievement so we can begin to look at professional issues. Only then, I believe, we can start to look at true educational reform.”
School district officials said they are looking forward to working with the union on setting a schedule for negotiations. Officials could not say when exactly the school district would present its own negotiations proposal.
“I think our hope and intention over the course of the next few weeks is to establish a schedule for those talks,” said Julia Brownley, school board president. “In the past, in terms of reflection, when this item is on the agenda nobody shows up, so we typically end up opening the discussion and closing it.”
Brownley said proposals are a simple process, but negotiations are never easy.
“Clearly our negotiations in the past have become more public and people certainly have strong opinions about it,” she said. “We’ve had some very tough issues to deliberate on and deal on.”
Long known for their contentious relationship, union officials and school district administrators both hope this year’s negotiations will go much smoother than in the past.
“I can assure you that the relationship between the school district and the union has not always been cordial. In fact it’s well known that relations in the past have not been good,” Keiley said. “The current administration has begun to forge better relations, but that doesn’t happen over night. It takes a lot of trust.”
“I can assure you that the relationship between the school district and the union has not always been cordial. In fact it’s well known that relations in the past have not been good.” — — HARRY KEILEY Teachers’ union, president
This year the Santa Monica Malibu Classroom Teachers Association will have entirely new faces on the other side of the bargaining table. Since the last contract signing, the school district has hired a new superintendent and two new assistant superintendents, all of whom will be essential in the negotiations.
The new administration has worked hard to mend relations with the teachers’ union. The union and the administration recently launched an ambitious program to pool any state funds received for improved academic performance at individual schools into a general account to be redistributed based on need.
The landmark arrangement may be the first of its kind in California. It demonstrates a close working relationship between the district and the union, a feat almost unimaginable just a few years ago.
Now the union wants pay raises for its teachers to remain competitive with surrounding communities. During the 1990s, the union asserts, teachers’ salaries declined by 4 percent when adjusted for inflation in the state.
The union officials also said the school district ranks among the highest in the state in pay to administrators and non-classroom personnel but not on teacher salaries. Teacher salaries have decreased because of increased inflation and general work place conditions.
“We cannot allow that to happen again,” wrote Keiley in the union’s negotiation proposal. “Teachers deserve a professional wage, one that at a minimum keeps up with the increased cost of living.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on January 17, 2002. Read the original PDF.