ANOTHER UPDATE

Teachers Union, School District Get Lesson
Both Parties Told To 'Bargain Better'

BY RAAM WONG Journal Staff Writer (as published in the Journal North

ALBUQUERQUE - The state Labor Board on Monday (July 10, 2006) gave the feuding Santa Fe school district and the teachers union a lesson in sandbox diplomacy: "Play nice."

During a hearing, an officer with the state Public Employee Labor Relations Board refused to throw out dueling complaints filed by the district and the National Education Association of Santa Fe. Both sides charge that the other has refused to bargain in good faith during teacher contract negotiations that have been on hold since late May. The NEA presented its case against the district at the hearing Monday, while a hearing for the district's complaint was set for July 31.

Pilar Vaile, the hearing officer, said she was inclined to support the district's claims over the union's. Meanwhile, the district and the union have made tentative steps toward returning to the bargaining table. Their respective bargaining teams met for two hours on Friday and hope to meet again, with the assistance of a mediator, this Friday.

Vaile said it was relatively early in the negotiating process to be so bogged down. "You all need to play nice," said Vaile, sitting at the head of a conference table with union and district officials sitting across from each other. "You need to bargain better."

The two sides had barely begun negotiating this spring when the talks broke down in one of the most significant conflicts between the district and the union in recent memory. The district objected when the union, among other things, distributed district demands, or "re-openers," in teacher lounges and discussed wage issues before the school board.

The district responded by canceling a bargaining meeting and filing a complaint stating that the union had violated the confidentiality rules of the talks with its actions.

NEA officials disagree. They say the union did not violate the ground rules, and even if it did, the rules were nonbinding and not necessary for the talks.

Vaile indicated support for the district's position. She said that case law has shown that the violation of ground rules by one side can justifiably be used by the other to refuse to negotiate. For its part, the union's complaint states that the district has refused to bargain in good faith. As evidence, the NEA's attorney played a tape of a voice mail message left by Bobbie Gutierrez, the district's lead negotiator, to Koo Im Tong, the NEA president. In the May 26 message, Gutierrez said a complaint had been filed and that contract negotiations were being canceled "until further notice."

The union contends that the message implies that the district was refusing to take part in negotiations until a ruling is made by the state labor board. "There have not been actual bargaining sessions," NEA attorney Andrew Lewinter said. In testimony, Gutierrez responded that her only intent in leaving the message was to cancel the only bargaining meeting left on the calendar. The district was - and still is - willing to return to negotiations, SFPS attorney Dina Holcomb said, pointing to three recent efforts to jump-start the talks. District officials say they're looking for advice from the board on how to proceed. "We have had a strained relationship in negotiations, and we don't know where to go from here," Holcomb said.