[Editor’s Note: A letter Mr. Mielke, President of the Teachers Union, sent Friday afternoon to his 350 members and Interim Supt. Patty Jaffe.]
Friends —
Your Culver City Federation of Teachers bargaining team (Amy Maldonado, Casey Chabola, Claudette DuBois, Natalie Gualtieri, our field rep from the California Federation of Teachers, Kevin Cronin, and I) met Thursday with the management team to begin talks for this year.
You will recall that during last year's talks we had agreed to take 5 unpaid furlough days this year to help CCUSD through this latest financial crisis.
Many of you noticed also that our healthcare benefits costs have gone up again (the new rates kicked in on Jan. 1), and these deductions reduced your Jan. 1 paycheck. Up until just a few years ago, we had been able to bargain that CCUSD would pick up these increases each year. For the past few years, though, healthcare increases have been borne entirely by employees —with no additional contribution from CCUSD.
With these things in mind, we approached Thursday's session with the hope that the bargaining process would start off with a “thank you” from the District to us for accepting those unpaid furlough days, and that the talks could get off to a positive start.
Without going into details, suffice to say that the District's opening bargaining proposal did not get us off to that good start. In fact, to us their opening proposal was unnecessarily aggressive and provocative.
While I was writing my update on Thursday evening, I got a call from our chief negotiator, Kevin Cronin. Kevin suggested that I contact the superintendent, Mrs. Jaffe, to see if we could “put out the fire before it began.” His idea was that if the Board wanted a chance for a “do-over” on their opening proposal, we'd like to give them that chance.
I followed his advice and contacted Mrs. Jaffe. She then contacted the School Board members. My understanding from speaking with her this afternoon is that the Board has agreed to at least consider our request that they reconsider their original proposal.
This may sound like much ado about nothing, but those of us who have lived through adversarial bargaining cycles understand that it’s not a good sign to start sharpening spears after the first session. Spears may get sharpened eventually, but it’s always best to start the process with a spirit of cooperation and collaboration — especially in these tough times.
So that's where we are. The teams are due to meet again on Jan. 27. The Board may show up with their original proposal intact. If so, we’ll take it from there. But we’re hoping that they’ll take a second look, not only at the District’s financial picture, but to take a second look at the people who are actually doing the primary work of the School District —teaching students — in the classroom each and every day.
We’ll keep you posted.
dave mielke, president
P.S. Last year we bargained that CCUSD would complete an analysis of early retirement incentive programs by Jan. 15. That report was not ready at Thursday’s session, Jan. 13. (As teachers, we're used to getting assignments turned in at the last minute.) We’re hoping that CCUSD’s analysis will show that an early retirement program for employees can save the District money and help them avoid another round of cuts. Unless CCUSD tells us that their “dog ate the report,” we should know something Tuesday.
Mr. Mielke may be contacted at davidmielke@ccusd.org
