Teachers Union Head Hopeful of New Conctract from New School Committee
The Watertown Educators Association is in the second year without a contract, but union president Debra King hopes to have a contract signed soon.
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A flurry of negotiations in December between the Watertown Educators Association and the Watertown school officials ended up where they started – with no teachers contract. Union president Debra King said she hopes a new School Committee will mean a different result.
"There's a new School Committee, so we can start anew," King said. "Not only are there two new members, there is a new chairman."
The School Committee met for the first time this week, and elected its new chairman, Eileen Hsu-Balzer. New members Michael Shepard and Julie McMahon joined the School Committee this week.
Gone from the committee are Tony Paolillo, the long-time School Committee chairman, and one-term member Chris "Kip" Beach.
The teachers and School Committee had a memorandum of agreement on a contract in April, and the teachers voted to approve it. In April, however, the School Committee voted the contract down.
Paolillo was a member of the negotiating team, and voted for the contract, which lost 5-3. Beach voted against the contract.
No negotiation meetings between the teachers and school officials, King said.
The next contract time a memorandum of agreement is reached, King said the teachers will not vote until the School Committee approves it.
The WEA also awaits a hearing on a complaint filed with the Department of Labor Relations charging Watertown school officials with negotiating in bad faith. King said she is still waiting for hearing date to be set.
John MacNeill
8:22 am on Monday, January 16, 2012
>>The WEA also awaits a hearing on a complaint filed with the Department of Labor Relations...
Does this mean that the Dept. has already done pre-hearing investigative conferences? Or, after all these months, is this complaint still at square-one?
The States' fiscal year ended on June 30th 2011. The Division of Labor Relations. is required to submit a report within 120-days that details, among other things,
>>disposition of all such cases; statistics regarding the number of decisions it has rendered and unresolved cases, and the timeliness of the division’s decisions
So, what is the status of this complaint? "...awaits a hearing" doesn't seem to cover it.
>>(h) Whenever it is alleged that a party has refused to bargain collectively in good faith with the exclusive representative as required in section 10 and that such refusal is based upon a dispute involving the appropriateness of a bargaining unit, the division shall, except for good cause shown, issue an interim order requiring the parties to bargain pending its determination of the dispute. Where such interim order is issued, the board shall hold a hearing on the charge in a summary manner and shall speedily determine the issues raised and shall make an appropriate decision.
"Speedily."