Recent lapse in communication between school district and state
board representing Service Employees International Union Local 715
classified employees escalates labor dispute
In November several days went by without the Public Employment Relations Board, representing the Morgan Hill Unified School District classified employees, hearing from administration officials in Superintendent Alan Nishino’s office about a verbal request asking for more talks to resolve a salary and benefits dispute with about 300 classified school employees.
PERB is the quasi-judicial administrative agency charged with administering the collective bargaining statues covering the Service Employees International Union, which represents the workers.
PERB and the SEIU are still waiting for a formal response from the district. It hasn’t come and it probably never will.
And that lack of courtesy toward PERB and the SEIU is one of the many ills affecting our district administration, particularly Nishino’s office, whose top leader – our school chief – shows ironically such lack of educational finesse in handling this labor dispute that it’s time members of the board of education write him up for it. Either that or they need to hold those handling this labor dispute accountable for the serious mistakes they seem to be making along the way.
There’s absolutely no excuse that can justify the district’s missed deadline to get back to PERB and to ignore its request to get both sides to the bargaining table by a certain time for more negotiating. PERB was being accommodating enough by agreeing to more talks despite the SEIU’s insistence that they had reached an impasse with the district.
Common sense would make Nishino or Morgan Hill Unified School District Assistant Superintendent Jay Totter acknowledge receipt of such communication in a timely manner to show the disgruntled workers they at least want to follow protocol in this labor dispute. Instead, Totter contacts SEIU Chairwoman Pam Torrisi the second week of December about returning to the table, but surprisingly she’s told not to negotiate but to bring him up to speed. Totter also tells Torrisi he may bring an attorney with him. Torrisi, obviously wants to bring an attorney as well, but Totter backs down. No meeting has still been set and the labor dispute prolongs until after the winter break.
Unless district officials are absolutely out of their mind in wanting to escalate an already bad situation, which has brought morale down, has initiated rumors of a sick out among the workers and is now the talk of our students and teachers, Nishino and those advising him on how to handle this fiasco are either grossly informed, ill advised or are stalling the employees who don’t deserve such disrespect.
The workers and our administrators should be focusing their energy on resolving their differences so they can go on with improving the education of our children. They should not be wasting time on Nishino’s childish behavior and the discourteous and undignified behavior of those helping him handle this labor dispute.
The workers, the district’s lowest paid employees laboring as bus drivers, groundskeepers, custodians, secretaries and classroom aides, have been working without a resolution to their three-year labor contract “reopeners” on salary, benefits and holidays since July. Negotiations between the SEIU and the district stalled at the end of October. To add injury to insult, everyone has received a salary raise, except them, even school yard duty employees.
The aftermath of the labor woes affecting the district won’t be solved by PERB. PERB will only try to adjudicate the dispute between the parties by assigning a state mediator who can intervene, but it won’t do anything to repair the level of distrust between the workers and the administration.
We don’t believe Totter’s statements to staff writer Marilyn Dubil saying the district is “hopeful” the groups will not have to resort to mediation to resolve their differences. Nobody can hope for a friendly resolution to a labor dispute when the biggest player shows such lack of regard and courtesy toward PERB and the classified employees.
The district could have been more cordial in dealing with the workers during the negotiation process and now that an impasse has been declared by the SEIU and PERB, it’s time for Nishino, Totter and trustees to let the mediator do his job and find the money to give the workers some sort of salary increase and health benefit packages that will return them to the schools to focus their attention on our children’s education.
