Columbia teachers' union still trying to negotiate, even after board vote
Columbia Missouri National Education Association bargaining team members Kathy Steinhoff, left, and Susan McClintic wait in the hall of the Columbia Public Schools administration building on Thursday. Union members waited for a CPS bargaining team to arrive, even though CPS officials said a meeting last month was the last one they would attend.
The union representing Columbia’s public school teachers is still attending collective bargaining sessions, but they are the only ones.
A few members of the Columbia Missouri National Education Association negotiating team showed up Thursday for a session with the Columbia Public Schools team at the district administration building, 1818 W. Worley St.
CMNEA team members Susan McClintic, Kathy Steinhoff and Dean Klempke waited for about 30 minutes in the CPS administration building lobby, in case the school district’s team happened to arrive.
They didn’t. CPS negotiator Duane Martin said at the March 16 negotiation session that the team would not attend future negotiation sessions after issuing its final proposal on March 10.
McClintic, the CMNEA president, said the CMNEA team continues to show up because it had agreed to show up for negotiation sessions, as had the CPS team.
Steinhoff said not attending scheduled sessions violates the ground rules and isn’t bargaining in good faith.
“By refusing to meet, refusing to negotiate, we’re completely left in the dark,” Steinhoff said.
The CMNEA team has made a counterproposal: giving up its request for a 5 percent salary increase, but standing firm on restoration of salaries frozen in 2009-10. The counterproposal also seeks protection of “teacher directed” planning time for its members.
Michelle Baumstark, CPS spokeswoman, said the board will consider the counterproposal at its May 11 meeting.
The current three-year collective bargaining agreement, approved last year by the district and the CMNEA, expires in June 2017. The agreement allows for a limited number of issues to be renegotiated each year, but if the parties can’t reach an agreement, the existing contract with teachers remains in place.
The board approved individual teacher contracts without pay increases or restoration of the frozen salaries on March 9. The district’s proposal that won board approval included continuation of raises related to experience and education levels.
McClintic said the school board could still approve changes to the negotiated agreement and the district could reissue teacher contracts to include the changes.
Steinhoff said the negotiations have been discouraging for teachers.
CPS Deputy Superintendent Dana Clippard, the designated spokeswoman for the district’s negotiating team, was out of town on Friday and not immediately available for comment. CPS negotiators have said they provided the teachers with the only raises the school district could afford. The district has been deficit spending, causing decreasing fund balances that officials say don’t allow for any increases in the budget without corresponding revenue increases.
No comments:
Post a Comment