Athens, PA Union vs. School Board: I Think I See Your Problem

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The teachers of the Athens school district have been working now for three years without a contract.

I think this article is probably the best highlight of why that has been the case.

Let's break this down.

What was the ultimatum?

“The AAEA faculty will allow the Athens Area School Board four weeks from the time state funds are allocated to the Athens Area School District to propose a reasonable contract settlement and begin to show an attempt to bargain in good faith,” the letter said. “If the school board fails to do so, AAEA faculty will reconvene to vote on a strike.”

After THREE YEARS of negotiating...where negotiations are held several months apart...the union is saying they want the board to show AN ATTEMPT to bargain IN GOOD FAITH. It's not even demanding a resolution. It's demanding an attempt to bargain in good faith. And the consequence? A vote on whether to strike. Not a guarantee of a strike. A vote on whether to do it.

It has the gravitas of threatening not to force your kid to eat their spinach at dinner.

So how does the board reply? Board member Jason Johnson said,

"If they want to go to war, let’s go to war."

That's very adult. Precisely the kind of person you want acting in good faith negotiations with another party.

Another newspaper quoted this school board member saying, "...it has been absolutely ridiculous...what we have to deal with on settling the contract. The people that we have doing this have worked hard - many hours, countless hours...doing everything they can, yet the teachers seem to think that they want everything and everything after that."

Proof of the quote

First...that quote doesn't make much sense. Just from a grammatical standpoint. I'm not sure if that's Johnson's fault or the article editor.

Second...he makes it sound like they've been toiling away at this contract nonstop against the relentlessly unwavering Union. He fails to mention that their "negotiations" rarely take place. According to what I could find, weeks, if not months, can go by before they get back together again for another session.

What I'd like to know is how much of the ~8,760 hours over the course of 3 years have you really spent working on the contract negotiations, Mr. Johnson? It shouldn't be hard to get an estimate, when these meetings are scheduled for an evening or two every few months. I'd be interested to know how much time has actually been spent trying to get the board's job done in providing their staff with a contract. How many times have there been delays in scheduling negotiation sessions? I'm fairly sure most of the board members would be angry working for an employer who isn't renewing their contracts in a timely fashion, but it's evident they don't mind doing this to their own staff.

He also said, in that same article, "If they want to do what they're saying, that's fine. Do not put us in the corner."

Because three years of voting down every concession offered by the Union is putting them in a corner.

Further, "If those children can't go to school, it's not us - it's the teachers." Completely disregarding the board's role in the lack of negotiations, and their refusal to meet for negotiations - except on the board's timetable.

For a group of adults, it seems beneath them to play the "Oh, they hold all the cards and are forcing us into a corner!" card. Especially when he also was quoted saying, "Again, we don't work for them - they work for us."

"What are they sacrificing? Nothing," he was further quoted.

Care to share the details of the offers? Because this sounds like you're telling the public the Union has offered nothing in these negotiations. I also find that hard to believe, that they offered - over the course of three years - no concessions.

I do believe that you have had the option of a fact finder. I believe you've had that option a couple of times. It's a third party that comes in and looks at both sides and presents a set of recommendations; as a third party they don't have a horse in the race. In theory, the report should be acceptable because it doesn't involve the Board's need to reinforce the idea that the educators are a waste of money nor the Union's desire to steal all your pie.

I also believe you, the Board, threw out both of those reports. Outrightly rejected them. How reasonable. As was in the Daily Review link:

"The AAEA accepted the first proposal, but rejected the second, as it contained ambiguous language. Both suggested compromises were rejected by the Athens Area School Board,” the letter said. “AAEA struggles to negotiate with the Athens Area School Board, as they even rejected the second proposal that included a significant decrease in benefits for teachers.”

Are you on the negotiating committee, Mr. Johnson? Because he goes on to say that, "I'm telling you, they will never get my vote...I'm tired of this garbage that has been in the paper stating how they are going to corner us."

Yes. Demanding that you negotiate in good faith is cornering you, especially when you promise you'll not pass a vote in their favor.

Again from the Review, from Mr. Johnson:

“They’re frustrated that the teachers are going to put in jeopardy the kids’ future, the kids’ time at school,” he said. “It’s the most important thing for these kids to get an education.”

This surely hints at the horror of these teachers holding the school hostage with a strike. Does Mr. Johnson actually know what a strike entails? What the limits are? Because at best, strikes are merely an inconvenience to the education of the students. If it were an actual, effective means to resolve the issue, they would have gone on strike far sooner than this over the course of THREE YEARS.

I mean...you're aware there are limits to a strike, correct? Because you have to provide 180 days of school to the students? A school board unwilling to negotiate in good faith...which is what supposedly led to your speech, when the Union requested this...doesn't hurt the kids' education. As outlined by the PSEA (Pennsylvania State Education Association), the Secretary of Education can order an injunction if the strike means the district can't provide 180 days of school by June 30. It also requires advisory arbitration when the strike will prevent 180 days of school by June 15.

Or you can submit to arbitration. That automatically ends the strike until one of you, the Board or the Union, rejects the results of arbitration.

AND this is on top of rules that require such things as 48 hour notice of the strike. In other words, you're not the powerless victim you make yourselves out to be. If you truly feel this is unfair, why not work with the fact finder reports? Why not enter arbitration, or binding arbitration?

Strikes aren't a magic solution. They're not even a very effective threat. The law has done quite a bit to hobble their effectiveness and put limitations on what can and can't be done by the Union in the event of a strike. The Athens Board's attempt to hyperbolize and distort the effect of a strike doesn't change the reality of the limitations of a strike. But we know what you did to the fact finder's reports...I'm guessing facts aren't a priority to a good headline grabber.

What I see is a board that is outrightly hostile to the educators. I see a Board that acts like the teachers aren't a part of the community you claim to serve and represent. I see a board that promotes the idea that the community should be hostile to the educators, creating barriers to negotiation rather than promoting good faith negotiation. I see someone who has blatantly admitted he won't vote for anything proposed by the Union. I see a board united in being unreasonable, as quoted by Board member Darci Baird, "Well said."

I see teachers that still put in far more hours than you claim they are required to put in. I see teachers working in a toxic environment where they get little support from the administrators you've hired. I see teachers who are anxious to leave...some have already left...the profession because, in part, of the management decisions you've made. I see a board that doesn't hold their administrators accountable while increasing pressure on teachers to meet impossible goals.

I see a board that employs dirty tactics in their manipulation of facts, as I pointed out in a previous blog post. And it did not escape notice that my wife, an educator for over a decade with the school, was suddenly under more scrutiny after that blog post went live and gained some attention among some people in the district. The fear of retaliation by the Board and administrators is an open secret in the school district now.

But keep saying this is all about the kids. The inaction on the part of the board over a span of 3 years shows how dedicated they are to working with their staff in creating an effective learning environment.

All of this is my own opinion, except where I quoted others. The images were from the 12/3/2015 "The Morning Times" article by Warren Howeler. The links to The Daily Review quotes are from...well, the link to The Daily Review.