Burlington Republican pitches ban on teachers’ strikes

by Alicia Freese February 20, 2013 vtdigger.org Just over two dozen teachers’ strikes have taken place in Vermont over the last 40 years. Representative Kurt Wright, R-Burlington, wants the latest one ‘ which took place last April in Rutland Southwest Supervisory Union ‘ to be the last.
Wright is introducing a bill that bans teachers’ strikes. But it wouldn’ t tip the balance at the bargaining table, Wright says, because it strips both sides of some of their clout when negotiations hit an impasse. It also takes away the right of school boards to impose working conditions on teachers.
‘ They are extremely divisive for the community that has a strike. It disrupts family life. It’ s not good for kids,’ Wright said. ‘ This is not an anti-teachers bill.’
Strikes and imposition of conditions are the negotiating tools of last resort for teachers and school boards. Under the proposed law, when the two parties can’ t come to an agreement, they would enter into legally binding arbitration. In this scenario, both sides agree upon an arbitrator who makes a final binding decision on the terms of the contract.
Wright said teachers have told him they would prefer binding arbitration to going on strike.
The Vermont NEA ‘ the state’ s teachers’ union ‘ is amenable to the idea. The Vermont School Boards Association, however, has ‘ serious concerns.’
Steve Dale, executive director of the Vermont School Boards Association, said using binding arbitration would stymie the potential for making significant changes in collective bargaining agreements.
‘ It would by definition be a very incremental process. Each side submits their last best offer and because of that, no one asks for anything too out of the ordinary. It is always going to produce the most conservative change.’
‘ This is not the time to be moving incrementally,’ Dale said, adding that the Vermont School Boards Association wants to start ‘ a fresh conversation about collective bargaining agreements.’
School boards are more concerned about this than they are about losing the right to impose conditions on teachers, according to Dale.
‘ It’ s an idea we don’ t outrightly reject,’ said Darren Allen, the spokesperson for Vermont NEA.
Both of the bargaining instruments that the bill does away with are undesirable, Allen said. ‘ No one likes a teachers’ strike, but teachers don’ t like school boards walking away and imposing unilateral working conditions on them.’
But the Vermont NEA isn’ t convinced that the bill is useful, given the rarity that either tool is put to use under the current system. ‘ Nothing is really broken here,’ Allen said, pointing out that there have only been about 25 instances in which school boards have imposed conditions on teachers.
One strike is too many, Wright said, and even if a strike doesn’ t occur, the threat of one can be ‘ divisive and problematic for a community.’
It’ s not as radical as it may sound, Wright said, pointing out that 37 states already ban teachers’ strikes, and Vermont doesn’ t allow state employees to go on strike.
This isn’ t the first time the bill has germinated in the Statehouse, but Wright says he thinks it has a better chance of passing this year because of one key backer ‘ Secretary of Education Armando Vilaseca. Wright recruited three co-sponsors, two of whom are Democrats (Sarah Buxton, D-Tunbridge, Jim Condon, D-Colchester, but he said it will be a harder sell among other House Democrats.