Wis. Labor Bill Could Vex District-Union Relations

Includes updates and/or revisions. One Wednesday night, Superintendent Jon Bales received a couple of phone calls at his home that disappointed him but did not come as a surprise. Rick Hill, the president of the local teachers’ union, called him from the state Capitol in Madison, Wisconsin with updates. He informed Mr. Bales that many teachers from the DeForest Area School District had joined the growing protests there and that a number of educators were unlikely to show up for work the next day.

Mr. Bales quickly understood that he would have to cancel school. That night, he and Mr. Hill, who have a good relationship, reached an agreement. Teachers in the district would not call in sick, but would instead make up the lost time by working on a day when they were originally scheduled to have off. Mr. Bales started making calls to administrators and organizing communication with parents, who were going to be disrupted by the changes to their plans for the next day.

Massive protests have become commonplace in Wisconsin after Governor Scott Walker, a Republican, proposed a plan to diminish collective bargaining rights for teachers and other public employees. Similar measures are being pursued by GOP elected officials in Ohio and other states. However, in the DeForest district and some others across the state, collective bargaining, although challenging, has resulted in agreements that generally satisfied both sides. A number of superintendents and local teachers’ union leaders argue that Governor Walker’s plan would disrupt existing relationships and create the potential for more division. It would give district leaders significantly more authority to decide matters such as teachers’ healthcare coverage, school assignments, and class sizes – subjects that are currently handled through collective bargaining.

"In the end, what we have locally is each other," said Mr. Bales in an interview in his office last week. "Our culture here is built on trying to involve everyone in the conversation."

The controversy surrounding the governor’s plan has presented administrators like Mr. Bales, as well as teachers and parents, with an unfamiliar and ever-changing challenge: how to navigate the upheaval while still educating students and maintaining unity within their school communities. "You have to respect the fact that people are personally affected," stated Mr. Bales. "But from our point of view, and also from the teachers’ leadership, you have to prioritize the well-being of the children. You have to separate personal impact from the impact on the system." Mr. Hill, a 58-year-old special education teacher and the local union president, expresses concern that the cooperative approach will be replaced by a mindset that encourages both sides to "get the best you can, when you can." "I’m really worried," he explained. "It’s like the Wild West when you take away all sense of what’s reasonable and how to work through things."

Consensus Bargaining

Officials in the DeForest School District, which consists of 3,250 students, and members of the teachers’ union – an affiliate of the 98,000-member Wisconsin Education Association Council (WEAC) and the National Education Association – adopt a method called consensus bargaining in their contract negotiations. They start by establishing broad principles and gradually move on to specific terms in the contract.

During the negotiations, the two sides sometimes meet at the district’s offices, while other times they convene at the local library in DeForest. The town of DeForest, with around 9,000 residents, is home to workers employed in manufacturing, farming, and various government sectors, often located in Madison, just south of the town. Decisions on different provisions are made by a show of hands, with participants using thumb signals to indicate agreement, disagreement, or a neutral position. A single thumbs-down is enough to reject a provision, so participants work towards reaching an agreement where everyone is at least neutral or agrees, explained Vickie Adkins, the district’s human resources director.

"I have never heard so many people saying, ‘I’m leaving,’" he remarked.

Criticism of the Influence of Labor Organizations

Stephanie Griggs, a parent with three children in public schools in Watertown, Wisconsin, is in favor of Governor Scott Walker’s plans. As a former school board member, she believes that teachers and other public workers should contribute to their pensions and healthcare. According to her, the state needs to limit collective bargaining rights to reduce costs for taxpayers.

Critics of teachers’ unions and proponents of stricter government spending controls argue that collective bargaining heavily favors labor organizations and hampers management from implementing changes that could save money and improve student achievement. Some argue that the fear of upsetting politically-active teachers’ unions can pressure school district leaders into accepting deals that they may not prefer. In this context, the concerns expressed by some Wisconsin school administrators about the governor’s proposal are easier to comprehend. Mike Antonucci, the director of the California-based Education Intelligence Agency, an organization that conducts research and often criticizes unions, believes that if Governor Walker’s plan is approved, local school officials will have to manage frustrated employees while dealing with painful budget cuts in their schools.

"District administrators want to avoid any trouble," Mr. Antonucci stated in an email. Administrators, he added, "are the ones who will have to deal with the new situation – angry unions that have not been eliminated but have been weakened." Meanwhile, in the DeForest district, Superintendent Jon Bales has been trying to mitigate the impact of the state tensions by reaching out to parents. Many parents were outraged by the cancellation of school, even for a single day (some Wisconsin districts were closed for much longer). Bales estimates that around 90 percent of the calls and emails he received were from people upset with the district employees protesting by staying away from school.

The response was more diverse in the Middleton-Cross Plains Area School District, which has around 6,000 students. Superintendent Don Johnson reported that the district canceled two days of classes because many teachers and other employees did not show up for work. Opinions from parents were divided into three roughly equal groups – those who supported the teachers’ action, those who opposed it, and those who fell somewhere in between. Some parents in the suburban Madison district were concerned that educators would promote a "union point of view" in their classes. As the public protests continued, the superintendent sent a memo to teachers, reminding them of a policy that requires educators to present controversial topics in an impartial manner. He also advised teachers to avoid discussing the Wisconsin conflict altogether if it was irrelevant to their classes. "We need to understand that our duty is to help students understand issues," Johnson emphasized. He noted that the controversy is "here and now," but it does not really belong in a chemistry classroom.

During the protests, reports surfaced that some teachers across the state had asked doctors to provide them with notes stating that they were sick, allowing them to be paid for the days they missed, even though they were attending the protests. Mr. Johnson instructed teachers who did not report to work and instead participated in the protests to take unpaid leave instead of falsely reporting being sick. He explained in a memo dated February 20 that this would "make it clear to the public that we are all acting honestly and honorably."

Many educators are worried about the future of their profession and the decline in education quality due to budget cuts, according to Pat Keeler, a social studies teacher and union member. Keeler mentioned that many teachers have started exploring other career options. "People are angry," the 44-year-old said. "They don’t understand why they are being blamed for Wisconsin’s budget problems."

There is still some public resentment over the canceled classes. Mr. Johnson reported that he had received eight public records requests related to the work stoppage, with the majority coming from members of the community who wanted to know the names of district employees who had not reported to work and the reasons they had given.

No Influence from Paid Advocates

WEAC, the largest teachers’ union in Wisconsin, has agreed to the governor’s proposal to increase payments for pensions and health coverage. However, they are not in favor of the changes to collective bargaining.

Ms. Griggs acknowledges that everyone is experiencing financial difficulties. She states that only a handful of individuals have received pay raises in the past five years. She is concerned that the ongoing controversy will discourage local voters from approving necessary spending measures to support schools in the district.

The situation has created a divide between parents and teachers. Ms. Griggs notes that parents are hesitant to discuss the issue with teachers, and vice versa. This lack of communication is causing a breakdown in dialogue.

Mr. Keiser has made efforts to negotiate fair agreements with the local union that benefit both teachers and taxpayers. Regardless of the outcome of Gov. Walker’s proposal, he hopes that some level of cooperation can be maintained.

Both sides are unwilling to simply comply with the demands of the other. Mr. Keiser believes that in any negotiation, it is important to find a middle ground where neither party feels like they have won or lost. Being reasonable is crucial, as failing to do so will have consequences in future negotiations.