It could be months before Morgan Hill Unified School District
teachers have a resolution to the unfair labor practice complaint
they filed with the Public Employment Relations Board (PERB),
according to Morgan Hill Federation of Teachers President Donna
Foster.
Morgan Hill – It could be months before Morgan Hill Unified School District teachers have a resolution to the unfair labor practice complaint they filed with the Public Employment Relations Board (PERB), according to Morgan Hill Federation of Teachers President Donna Foster.
The union filed the complaint, the first one in its history, with PERB after several grievances were not resolved. A response to the complaint from the district has been received, Foster said, but the union does not agree with the district’s response. The union now has until March 19 to respond back to PERB.
“What happens next is the PERB board decides if it’s worthy of a hearing,” Foster said. “It might be that some (of the grievances in the complaint) are and some might not be … We feel our case is very justified, that it’s a very strong case, but now it becomes dependent on the attorneys at PERB board.”
The decision by the PERB board could take weeks or even months, Foster said.
“What we see overall is a pattern; what concerns us most is that we may get resolution on a few things but only if we go to mat,” she said. “The district was not the least bit interested or concerned to sit with us and write out the contract until we filed the unfair labor practice complaint. They don’t want to sit and discuss these issues with us. Communication is a problem.”
The district recently agreed to talk with the union about the contract negotiated in the fall, Foster said. A side letter was needed to complete the contract.
“The contract has finally been typed up,” she added. “Our side is sitting and reading through it line by line; we’re trying to complete that process, but the district didn’t move until we made it a part of the complaint.”
MHFT is not the only district bargaining unit to take issue with the district. The Service Employees International Union, whose members are classified workers in the district, is set for mediation today with the district over failure to reach an agreement in negotiations over pay. SEIU members recently voted to approve a strike if the mediation was not successful.
Foster said MHFT is supportive of the efforts of the classified workers. The district’s bus drivers, clerical staff, food service workers, custodians, maintenance and landscaping workers and aides are part of the membership that is asking for a 5 percent salary increase for the 2006-06 school year; district officials say they have offered the workers a fair deal, with 8 percent over two years and the opportunity to negotiate a further pay raise for next year.
Teachers would not be able to support SEIU members by striking with them, if the classified workers decide to take that step, Foster said, but they would be supportive.
“We would lend our support in ways that we legally could, and we would certainly expect the district to settle with them,” she said.
