Update from Bargaining

Monday, January 16, 2012

The team began today at 9:30 am at the conference room in the 4-D building.

This is where our bargaining sessions are taking place and they are open to the public. A bargaining calendar has been posted on the website. You are welcome to attend. This location is upstairs of our office on the corner of the Spur Hwy and Marydale in Soldotna. Some of the start and end times do change with short notice.

The district provided the association with most of the documents we had requested.

Joe Rizzo (the KPEA spokesperson) and Sean Dusek (the District’s spokesperson) continued to discuss the rationales of some of our proposed changes and the district’s proposed changes. Example: Section 470 Workday was discussed during this time.

Other Sections discussed were 474 Class Size, 480 Notification of Non-Retention, 483 Teacher’s Rights, 490 Teacher Evaluation, 505 Freedom of Info Act, 540 Non-Jeopardy,  545 KPEA Professional Leave, 550 Dues, Fees, Deductions, Continuing Membership.

Section 550 is an interesting Section as the District has proposed to strike the language associated with union fees. This language has been in our agreement since 1992. The association is asking the district to respond to the following three questions regarding their rationale for elimination of “agency fee.” Their only response at the table has been, “We’ve had employees express concerns about costs.”

1.      Who did the bargaining unit members contact regarding their concern
(s) of 550?
 2. Since the signing of the current contract how many KPEA bargaining
unit members have contacted the entity in question #1 regarding section
550?
 3. Were the cost of the fees the only cost item mentioned by the
employees who contacted the entity in question #1?

As Joe mentioned this has been a distractor. The district expressed a desire to make good use of time for the bargaining process and this is causing delays.

Other items discussed were 560 Conformity to Law, 630 Agreement Print/Dissemination, and 650 Duration.

At 2:25 pm the District and KPESA began signing off on their Tentative Agreements.

They TA’d 13 of their Articles. Terri Tidwell is the spokesperson for KPESA.

Bargaining adjourned at 3:15 pm.

As today was Martin Luther King Jr. Day, I’d like to leave you with this quote of Dr. King’s

“All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence.”

Thank you for your support!

LaDawn