School district needs to get back to bargaining table

To the editor:

I spent several minutes today with my “American Heritage Dictionary, Second College Edition” looking for particular words. I was searching for words to convey my feelings of injustice as I watch my colleagues go through the process of obtaining a fair and equitable contract for working conditions.

I am talking about the Classified Employees Association’s bargaining for a contract (wtih the Mat-Su Borough School District). These contract negotiations, and I use the term loosely, have been going on for an inordinate length of time. For my colleagues to go more than 230 days without a contract is inexcusable.

The district cries “no money, you want too much” and other demeaning things while it pays a lawyer to speak for the district at the cost of $185 per hour. Yes, you read correctly — $185.00 per hour, and that probably does not include his travel time from Anchorage.

Where is the public outcry over this unnecessary expense of our tax dollars? This contract could have been settled months ago had the district chose to look within its own house (the administration) and find a spokesperson who would actually sit down and bargain. However, the District chose to go out of house, so to speak, and hire a very high-priced lawyer to do its speaking for it. This is not working on a solution to a problem that can be beneficial to all — the district, its employees and the public.

What other words can I use to express my feelings of frustration and disappointment over this unproductive and inequitable situation?

CEA will have been 239 days without a contract on Monday. The teacher’s association (MSEA) is also in negotiations for a contract at this time and we, like CEA, are at impasse. The district has employed the same lawyer to speak in our negotiations, at another $185 an hour. I wonder, is the district planning to go another 200-plus days “negotiating” with us and treat us as unfairly and unjustly as they are our colleagues in CEA?

It is time for the public to start making calls to the school board and administration and urge them to go back to the bargaining table for both associations. The alternative is to just sit there and do nothing while a lawyer gets more money in one hour than many people make in an entire day of work.

Don Campbell

Wasilla