District workers hold to contract

MAT-SU — With the school district’s two labor unions working only hours they’re contracted for and with contract talks stalled at the negotiating table, it seems an obvious question — what’s the hold-up?

Rick Byrnes, president of the Classified Employees Association, which represents district workers who aren’t teachers or administrators, said that so far the “work to contract” plan is going well. He said most union members are sticking to that plan, which is an easy one to understand.

“At the end of your contracted time you go home, instead of putting in extra hours to make sure the job gets done,” he said.

School Board President Colleen Vague said there haven’t been any major disruptions at the schools, as far as she can tell.

“Not on a day-to-day basis,” she said. “There have been some evening events that have been canceled because of it.”

Byrnes said the work reduction, which began Monday, is one tool the Mat-Su Education Association and CEA have employed to draw attention to the labor negotiations. The MSEA contract went to the bargaining table relatively recently and appears to be heading to arbitration, Byrnes said and Vague confirmed.

By contrast, CEA’s contract has been stalled for about a year. It went to arbitration earlier this year and a decision was returned early this month. The state requires one more negotiating session. Byrnes said he’d like for that meeting to be productive and would be amenable to scheduling more future meetings if it is.

“But if it’s an absolute stalemate then the ball is in the district’s court. They have the right to impose their last best offer,” he said.

From his perspective, though, there’s really only been one offer. The district hasn’t budged from its first offer of no pay increases, a doubling of the percentage of health premiums members pay and the elimination of five paid holidays. Having put that offer on the table, Byrnes said, the district hasn’t moved.

“As we were told in previous bargaining sessions, directly from the (school district’s) attorney’s lips, they don’t have the authority to change their positions,” Byrnes said.

Byrnes said he wants the district to give negotiators a little more slack to actually negotiate.

But Vague said the school board has looked at the district’s finances, knows what it can afford, and empowered its negotiators — a hired attorney and the district’s human resources director — to work within that range.

“Without further direction they don’t go any farther,” Vague said.

And that direction isn’t likely to come anytime soon. Vague pointed out that at the start of this school year the district took back janitorial services from a private contractor. To do that, she said, the district had to pull some money out of areas that would usually go to curriculum and things that go to the students.

“We actually did take money away from student-allocated funds. We don’t want to do that again,” Vague said.

If negotiations stall again and the district implements what it has offered, that doesn’t strip the union of options, Byrnes said. The work-to-contract order could keep up.

“Ultimately, the one action that does not benefit anybody, including ourselves and the district and the students of the district, is some kind of a strike situation, which is something we want to avoid and we think the district wants to avoid also,” Byrnes said. “Those things only come up when people are pushed into a corner and don’t have any options.”

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.