Teachers press for contract as opening day approaches

Teachers have not ruled out a strike.

By: Jeff Milgram

Union


approves ‘whatever measure’ to secure contract



   Members of the Princeton Regional Education Association voted "overwhelmingly" Tuesday morning
to give their leaders the authority to "take whatever measure" they need to secure a contract.

   After the vote at the Princeton Marriott Forrestal Village hotel in Plainsboro, the teachers
went back to work, as the school year began today with two in-service days. Classes begin Thursday.

   Teachers will hold a rally and press conference at 3:30 p.m. today in front of the Valley
Road Building. Their call for a resumption of negotiations today was rebuffed by Princeton Regional Board of
Education President Charlotte Bialek, who said the board will not sit down with the union face-to-face."

   "We are in mediation," she said, indicating that the board will wait until a session can
be arranged with the state mediator.

   Members of the Princeton Regional Education Association are scheduled to meet at 7 a.m. today to map out their next moves after failing to hammer out a contract before the start of the school year.
   The meeting follows a marathon bargaining session that began at 4:30 p.m. Thursday and ended without a settlement at 6 a.m. Friday.
   The teachers have not ruled out a strike and no new negotiations are scheduled.
   On Monday afternoon, the teachers demanded that contract talks resume today. In a written statement delivered by courier to members of the Princeton Regional Board of Education, the association declared, "The PREA bargaining team will be at the Valley Road Building tomorrow, Tuesday, September 3, 2002 at 4:30 p.m. ready to resume bargaining."
   The teachers gave the board until 2 p.m. today to agree to the talks. "Your failure to return to the bargaining table at that time will severely damage our school district," the statement said.
   School board President Charlotte Bialek said Monday evening she was discussing a response with the rest of the board’s negotiating team. She defended the board’s position in the negotiations over teacher salaries, benefits and non-academic duties, and said of the teachers’ strategy, "Since they don’t have a real issue, they are trying to make the board the issue."
   The board, which has been advertising for substitute teachers, is getting ready to keep schools open if the 300-member teachers’ union calls for a strike or other job action.
   "I think it’s going to be a rough week," said the PREA’s co-president, Suzanne Thompson. The PREA will meet at the Marriott Hotel in Plainsboro.
   "We’re preparing for the possibility of a job action," said the school board’s vice president, Anne Burns. A strike today will have little immediate effect because students do not return to the classroom until Thursday.
   "A strike is a strike against the children," said Ms. Bialek.
   She said the board is making contingency plans to counter a variety of job actions the union might take.
   The two sides sat down with state mediator Rick Gwin at 4:30 p.m. Thursday and didn’t emerge from the Valley Road building until 6 a.m. Friday.

"Teachers

Staff photo by Mark Czajkowski
Teachers rally outside the Valley Road building Thursday as negotiations with the Princeton Regional Board of Education go down to the wire.


   "When the state-appointed mediator announced he was ending the session we immediately indicated a willingness to meet any time, any day of the upcoming Labor Day weekend," said Ms. Thompson. "When he told us he had no offer to meet from the board, our entire bargaining team marched down the hall and demanded a meeting date from the board. When pressed, the board indicated the earliest it would entertain a meeting would be Wednesday. At that point we knew it was hopeless."
   Both Ms. Burns and Ms. Thompson believed progress was made Thursday. "I thought there was a possibility we would close it out," Ms. Burns said.
   The aftermath of the breakdown in talks was a war of words, with the PREA blaming the school board for not making time for another bargaining session that could avert a strike.
   Ms. Thompson said the board negotiators were "more interested in going on vacation than in settling our contract."
   Ms. Bialek and Ms. Burns both had commitments that took them out of the area for the weekend. Ms. Burns said the board had offered to sit down with the PREA earlier last week and the union had not been able to meet.
   "The ball is in the Board of Education’s court," Ms. Thompson said.
   Ms. Thompson said the board made a proposal at 1 a.m. Friday and the PREA offered a counterproposal at 2:30 a.m. "This is major movement … and then at 6 o’clock Rich Gwin pops in and says it’s over," Ms. Thompson said.
   "It is now clear that this board has been playing games because it believes our members will simply take whatever contract the board wants to give," Ms. Thompson said.
   Ms. Burns said the fact the board stayed at the negotiating table for 14 hours shows it is bargaining seriously.
   Ms. Burns said the board had offered to phase in family health coverage for non-tenured faculty, a major sticking point.
   But, she said, the union balked at measures to contain some health insurance costs. "They presented a package we cannot afford," Ms. Burns said.
   Ms. Bialek said the union’s counterproposal, given to the board at 2:30 a.m. Friday, "took huge steps backward. We were very disappointed."
   Ms. Thompson saw the negotiations differently.
   "We made concession after concession," she said.
   The two sides also met face-to-face on Wednesday and appeared to narrow their differences. Ms. Bialek thought more progress was made Wednesday than Thursday.
   "They offered us something Wednesday night and took it back Thursday," Ms. Thompson said. "That really galls me."