THE JOURNAL & TOPICS NEWSPAPERS | WEDNESDAY, MAY 7, 2008
Mediator To Join Dist. 207 Negotiations
By DWIGHT ESAU
Journal Reporter
After 15 months of negotiating, the High School District 207 board of education and the Maine Teachers Union (MTA), have reached an impasse on four issues - teacher compensation, retroactive pay, working conditions, and the length of a new contract.
The two sides agreed last weekend to bring in a federal mediator to attempt to resolve the stalemate. The Federal Mediation and Reconciliation Service was contacted Monday (May 5) and within 10 days to two weeks, a mediator will be appointed and will schedule new talks.
In an unusual move at Monday night's board meeting at Maine South High School, the board and union held a communications session that actually resembled a large, joint press conference in the school library.
More than 100 teachers showed up, but they didn't come to criticize the board or make any negative statements about the negotiations. Instead, union representatives and Joann Braam, board president, both spoke in favor of the decision to bring in a mediator and pledged to work cooperatively with him or her to reach a settlement of the prolonged contract talks.
This is the first time a mediator has been called into a 207 teacher contract collective bargaining impasse in many years.
"We just have a few items remaining to iron out, but it appears we'll need the help of a mediator to resolve them," said Braam. "We're confident that we can get this done in 30 days or so. We will work cooperatively with the mediator and union representatives."
Emma Visse, MTA president, expressed agreement with the mediator move, but she also said she hoped the board would "carefully consider" the union's position on the remaining issues.
Several students spoke briefly, praising the teachers they have had in their classes. They asked the board to support the teachers in their contract demands.
"The teachers I have had have been awesome and a very positive influence in my life, and I hope you consider that in the negotiations," one Maine West student said.
The joint decision for the mediator came after a marathon negotiating session last Friday, which lasted until the early hours of Saturday morning, according to Braam. "We jointly decided that a mediator could probably help us get together faster than we could do it ourselves," she said.
Mediators have no power to order or force a settlement or agreement, but they bring an objective, neutral voice to the talks and they can make creative suggestions that often lead to compromises and/or agreements.
According to one union member who spoke to the Journal last week, the issue of retroactive pay is the main sticking point in the talks right now. This involves a union request to make any pay increase negotiated in the new contract retroactive to Aug. 15, 2007, when the last contract between the board and union expired, or for some other specified period.
The two sides spent several months since last fall negotiating new language in many minor, routine areas of a proposed new contract, leaving discussions of teacher compensation and working conditions to the final stage.