18-month-long contract impasse now goes to ‘super-conciliation’
By Joanne Degnan, Managing Editor
ROBBINSVILLE The union representing the district’s more than 300 teachers, support staff, bus drivers and custodians, who have been working without a contract since June 2011, rejected a state-appointed fact-finder’s recommendations on Monday night.
According to the school district, fact-finder Martin Schienman’s report had called for no retroactive salary increase for 2011; phased-in raises between June 2012 and June 2013 that average out to 2 percent annually; and a 2.5 percent raise for 2013-2014. The Board of Education voted Nov. 27 to accept the recommendations.
However, on Tuesday the school district announced it had been notified that the Washington Township Education Association (the union still uses Robbinsville Township’s former name) had rejected the fact-finder’s recommendations.
Mike Johnson, the president of the WTEA, and Susan Nardi, the New Jersey Education Association field representative involved in the Robbinsville contract talks, did not return messages before The Messenger-Press went to print.
”The Robbinsville Board of Education is disappointed that the WTEA rejected the fact-finder’s report and recommendation,” said Board of Education Vice President Carol Boyne, who is a member of the district’s negotiating committee.
”Although the board did not agree with all aspects of the fact-finder’s report and recommendations, it unanimously voted to accept those recommendations in order to conclude the negotiations process,” Mrs. Boyne said.
The union’s rejection of the fact-finding report, means the New Jersey Public Employment Relations Commission (PERC) must now appoint what’s known as a “super-conciliator” to try and help the two sides reach an agreement. A super-conciliator can require 24-hour-a-day negotiations, amend the fact-finding report, and make other non-binding recommendations to help settle the dispute.
”The super-conciliation process is like mediation on steroids,” Superintendent Steve Mayer said Tuesday.
The WTEA, which in a show of solidarity wore maroon T-shirts with the slogan “Great Schools Great Teachers” to class Monday, filed an unfair labor practice against the school district in 2011. PERC appointed a mediator in June 2011 to intervene, but in October the school district reported the mediator had determined that no progress could be made and asked for fact-finding, the next step in the collective bargaining process.
Fact-finding is similar to mediation, but it results in written recommendations that must be released to the public. If the super-conciliator is unable to obtain a settlement, he or she also issues a report that is released to the public.
Although the reports of the fact-finder and super-conciliator are advisory only, the legal requirement that their findings be released to the public is intended to help drive both parties toward a mutually agreeable settlement.

