OUCH! That Stings!

If I'm a negotiator for the Huntley Education Association, I've got a sore rear end this morning from the spanking I received in the Northwest Herald.

The "Our View" editorial from the paper's Big Dogs is posted above, but here's the text:

D-158 should hold ground

The union that represents District 158 teachers doesn’t get it.

The Huntley Education Association still is standing by its initial proposal of 10.5 percent salary increases plus additional benefit payments for most of its teachers this year and next, calling it a reasonable proposal, according to a recent District 158 news release updating residents on contract negotiations that began earlier this year. The current contract expires June 30 and affects 577 members.

In short, the teachers’ union wants a 7-percent across-the-board increase in base pay this year and next, plus an additional 3.5 percent hike, or step increase, for many teachers, depending on experience. All new teachers and some more experienced teachers would qualify for the additional 3.5 percent. The school board’s negotiation team said the proposal would increase District 158’s compensation and benefit costs more than 35 percent.

Does that sound like a reasonable offer to you?

Outrageous is more like it. Or, perhaps, infuriating. Preposterous? We could come up a few more adjectives, but you get the point.

Bottom line is, the District 158 school board needs to be responsible to taxpayers and hold its ground. The board should not budge an inch on its initial offer, which called for a 4.25 percent increase, including the step, for most teachers in the first year of a four-year deal. The subsequent three years would include 0.25 percent pay increases on top of the Consumer Price Index figure, as long as that rate is no lower than 2 percent and no higher than 5 percent.

A federal mediator has been brought in to help push negotiations along, because little or no progress has been made.

There’s nothing wrong with bringing in a mediator. But D-158 officials cannot consent to meet halfway, not anywhere close to halfway. If anything, D-158 should reduce its initial offer.

Last year in District 2, teachers went on strike after similar contract negotiations stalled. Students missed six days of school as a result. District 2 officials considered bringing in temporary replacement teachers, but eventually met teachers somewhere in the middle. It wasn’t great for taxpayers, but it was a start in terms of school districts holding their ground.

Summer’s just beginning. There’s still plenty of time for the teacher’s union to become reasonable.

But if it does not, school officials should be prepared to follow in District 2’s footsteps. Only this time, no backing down.

I'm sure the negotiators are already whining about how the school district is making them look bad with their press releases, but why isn't the HEA sticking to their end of the bargain and releasing progress update press releases? Remember, when negotiations startd, both sides sat down and agreed that they would publish progress reports twice each month during the process.

Since the HEA is refusing to honor that part of the agreement, Bongo says "four paws up" to the school district for putting out progress reports unilaterally.

It's a real shame that a small group of union negotiators can cast such negative shadow on all teachers, because Bongo knows there are a lot of very good and hard working teachers out there who are fair and honest in spite of the bad taste the negotiation team is leaving in everyone's mouth.