HI,
UGLY! and it is only going to get uglier. Here is what we learned today - the district offered us no step next year but one the year after. It offered no salary increase in the next two years. It offered a cap on insurance with what they pay now - which means no increase even though the costs are going up and lastly they want to be able to cut 15 days from our contract without talking with us about it if they need to save money. YES, I WOULD SAY THAT WAS AS BAD AS IT COULD BE - besides cutting about 20 people last Friday.
The district is playing hard ball - Dusty would even say they are being evil. The district has cut more teachers than they said they would, have not cut anything else so far, and want teachers to pay for what the voters do not want to pay for. The big question is why do the people who care most about kids have to pay for them while the people who have kids in our schools do not want to pay for them - at least not a majority of them. Time has come for teachers to quit being the whipping boy for the voters, and everyone else. We took our cuts last year - how many more years will we have to take cuts?
Ok, enough ranting - but I will tell you it was difficult to remain composed when you have people look at you and say work harder, lose benefits and God only knows when you will ever get a raise again, even though everything costs more. I know people have lost jobs and that is a terrible thing so I don't want to whine too much but on the other hand, the people who do have jobs need to be able to keep their houses and cars and not have to work a second job.
One of my big worries is that we have people trying to get others to cut days and save jobs. I think that is what the district is hoping for. I think they want us to beat each other up and give in to their demands and give up the power we have over our contract. Lets be real - the 9 teachers cut are not coming back no matter what. They are gone. The legislature is not giving us any more money in the near future - so if you open the contract expect to always lose days. It is a simple way for the district to balance the budget. So you still want to open the contract - well what are the guarnatees that the district will bring back teachers? How many will be brought back? Oh, and guess what - next year they need another 1.5 million in cuts. So that means we will need to cut even more days and benefits and pay. DO NOT GO DOWN THE ROAD OF GIVING IN SO QUICKLY! Remember, negotiations is all a game of start high and then get to where you really want to be.
If you have questions or concerns - talk to someone on the negotiation team. Do not use district email to show we are not unified. It does not help our position. You can always call me - you may not always like my answer, but we can at least talk.
Hang in there,
Keith
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
April 18, 2011 Negotiations
Hi,
Well the district gave us their proposal and it was pretty ugly. They would like merit pay and that quickly became a fairly heated argument - it was nice that Dot stepped in and suggested that we take a caucus to talk things out a bit. We are not interested in merit pay and that is that. The other item or contention was their proposal to remove the 30 minutes of prep time during the student contact day - just as we thought they were going to do. They did not have any substantial reason for this except to say it is about scheduling - which it will be when they eliminate PE and Music from the elementary schools like they are talking about. We, of course, are not interested in that either. The last thing - kind of topping on the cake was the elimination the 30 minute early release for teachers. They wanted to get rid of that last year and we fought it off and here it is again this year. Again, the reason is they need that time for prep if they get rid of the student contact time prep.
If they stick to their guns on these ideas - it is going to be a long negotiations - I do not see us wanting any part of any of that - there is not a lot of negotiating room in their proposals - either you do them or you don't.
OTHER NEWS
I understand there is talk about cutting days on the facebook union site. Let me stress the importance of not cutting days.
1. If you open the days - then you will never get control of it again.
2. If you open days - you have no control over how many get cut.
3. If you open days - the district can keep all of the programs and things it wants to do and balance the budget on you pay.
4. If you open days - you hurt people who have spent a lifetime working as teachers - their retirement pay goes down.
5. If you open days - you are putting off the inevitable - will the actual amount needed to keep all of these employees EVER return. The states budget for the next two years says no. We all need to understand that the amount of money may never return to have school like it was 3-5 years ago.
6. If you open days - everyone suffers but the public. It is all on our backs.
7. If you open days - kids get more days off to go on vacations, see grandparents, play video games - but those lost educational days are lost forever.
8. If you open days - it says we don't need those days anyway.
9. Districts who have opened days - there is a growing movement that says that giving up days was a mistake and they should never have agreed to it - where does it end.
I think I could come up with a few more but I think you get the point - when we pass the levy - we will not have to worry about any of this!
By the way - the phone bank can still use your help today, tomorrow and Thursday.
Keith
Well the district gave us their proposal and it was pretty ugly. They would like merit pay and that quickly became a fairly heated argument - it was nice that Dot stepped in and suggested that we take a caucus to talk things out a bit. We are not interested in merit pay and that is that. The other item or contention was their proposal to remove the 30 minutes of prep time during the student contact day - just as we thought they were going to do. They did not have any substantial reason for this except to say it is about scheduling - which it will be when they eliminate PE and Music from the elementary schools like they are talking about. We, of course, are not interested in that either. The last thing - kind of topping on the cake was the elimination the 30 minute early release for teachers. They wanted to get rid of that last year and we fought it off and here it is again this year. Again, the reason is they need that time for prep if they get rid of the student contact time prep.
If they stick to their guns on these ideas - it is going to be a long negotiations - I do not see us wanting any part of any of that - there is not a lot of negotiating room in their proposals - either you do them or you don't.
OTHER NEWS
I understand there is talk about cutting days on the facebook union site. Let me stress the importance of not cutting days.
1. If you open the days - then you will never get control of it again.
2. If you open days - you have no control over how many get cut.
3. If you open days - the district can keep all of the programs and things it wants to do and balance the budget on you pay.
4. If you open days - you hurt people who have spent a lifetime working as teachers - their retirement pay goes down.
5. If you open days - you are putting off the inevitable - will the actual amount needed to keep all of these employees EVER return. The states budget for the next two years says no. We all need to understand that the amount of money may never return to have school like it was 3-5 years ago.
6. If you open days - everyone suffers but the public. It is all on our backs.
7. If you open days - kids get more days off to go on vacations, see grandparents, play video games - but those lost educational days are lost forever.
8. If you open days - it says we don't need those days anyway.
9. Districts who have opened days - there is a growing movement that says that giving up days was a mistake and they should never have agreed to it - where does it end.
I think I could come up with a few more but I think you get the point - when we pass the levy - we will not have to worry about any of this!
By the way - the phone bank can still use your help today, tomorrow and Thursday.
Keith
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Our first session for the 2011-2012 bargaining
Hi,
The session was pretty tame. We gave the district our proposal and they listened and asked questions. We are holding off on the big issues of pay and medical benefits until after the May budget forecast. We dont want to start talking numbers until we are sure about the state has the money.
We are opened with articles 4, 10, and 21 as the main articles so far. The district is going to open articles 4,10,11,14,15,20. The big issue here - I think and we will see - is about prep time. I understand that some districts are trying to have prep be after the kids have left not during the student contact time - WOW! We need to fght that!! I guess we will find out what they really want to do on April 18th,
Come and see what is up!
By the way - if you saw the districts cut list, there were two things to look at - 1. The 5 days of furlough the first year are self evident, but the second year it says only 3 days, BUT, those are three additional days to the 5 so really we will take 8 furlough days in the second year!! This is why we are not going to open the contract. 2. All people on extra duty contracts - did you notice the 50% reduction in your pay? You should.
We still have room on the phone banks - you should sign up and help improve your working conditions and compensation.
Keith
The session was pretty tame. We gave the district our proposal and they listened and asked questions. We are holding off on the big issues of pay and medical benefits until after the May budget forecast. We dont want to start talking numbers until we are sure about the state has the money.
We are opened with articles 4, 10, and 21 as the main articles so far. The district is going to open articles 4,10,11,14,15,20. The big issue here - I think and we will see - is about prep time. I understand that some districts are trying to have prep be after the kids have left not during the student contact time - WOW! We need to fght that!! I guess we will find out what they really want to do on April 18th,
Come and see what is up!
By the way - if you saw the districts cut list, there were two things to look at - 1. The 5 days of furlough the first year are self evident, but the second year it says only 3 days, BUT, those are three additional days to the 5 so really we will take 8 furlough days in the second year!! This is why we are not going to open the contract. 2. All people on extra duty contracts - did you notice the 50% reduction in your pay? You should.
We still have room on the phone banks - you should sign up and help improve your working conditions and compensation.
Keith
Thursday, March 10, 2011
2011 Negotiations Begin
Hi,
Our team of Dusty Humphries, Richard Palen, Danielle Gahr, Melissa Johnson, Megan Rileg and Keith Meeuwsen met with the districts team of Patty, Andy Croley, Lori Thompson, Alan King, and Jessica. (Bonita was not present).
It was all niceties as we exchanged ground rules for negotiations. We then set our next meeting dates which are April 4th and April 18th.
As a team we are still working out the final language to our proposals and if you have anything you want to tell us it is not too late.
As you know we have a 2.1 million deficit that looms large in negotiations. We also know that pay and health care benefits are the two big issues and that there are some very vocal people who got no raise at all last year who do not want to be left behind again this year.
We have also been paying attention to Portland and what they were able to do this year. One thing Portland has been able to do is pass levies - they do make a difference in what you can negotiate!!!
Anyhow - show up to the next bargaining session and lets see what we can do.
Keith
Our team of Dusty Humphries, Richard Palen, Danielle Gahr, Melissa Johnson, Megan Rileg and Keith Meeuwsen met with the districts team of Patty, Andy Croley, Lori Thompson, Alan King, and Jessica. (Bonita was not present).
It was all niceties as we exchanged ground rules for negotiations. We then set our next meeting dates which are April 4th and April 18th.
As a team we are still working out the final language to our proposals and if you have anything you want to tell us it is not too late.
As you know we have a 2.1 million deficit that looms large in negotiations. We also know that pay and health care benefits are the two big issues and that there are some very vocal people who got no raise at all last year who do not want to be left behind again this year.
We have also been paying attention to Portland and what they were able to do this year. One thing Portland has been able to do is pass levies - they do make a difference in what you can negotiate!!!
Anyhow - show up to the next bargaining session and lets see what we can do.
Keith
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