The three-year contracts signed in 2019 for both the Fairbanks Education Association and the Education Support Staff Association ended June 30, 2022.
The president of the Fairbanks Education Association, Sandi Ryan, commented to the Board of Education last week, reminding them it had been more than a year since the parties began to think about a new contract.
“November 9th, 2021, we began the pre-bargaining research summit. The idea was that the teams came together and they talked about common ground, hoping that when they came to the table with language, they would find a meeting of the minds. We were very hopeful. That was 539 days ago,” Ryan said.
The Education Support Staff Association, or ESSA, began to negotiate for a new contract in February last year. Both unions met many times over the year and as negotiations didn’t move, both processes went to mediation, ESSA in February and FEA in March. This spring the district announced no resolution and said both unions will go to arbitration.
“If that also fails, we will take a strike vote,” Ryan said.
For FEA, its has been 11 years (2012) since contract talks went to arbitration.
”The Fairbanks Education Association has never, never been forced to go on strike. We have always, always been able to work with administration and come to a respectful agreement,” Ryan said.
For now, both unions are continuing to work under the old contract provisions. FEA represents about 800 teachers in the borough. ESSA represents about 1,100 support staff members.
With the F E A contract, there are still 19 open articles and with the ESSA contract there are 15. You can find the documents, including what’s been tentatively agreed upon and what still is open on HR section of the district website.
Danielle Logan, president of ESSA, says training language has become a top priority.
”Our turnover rate is high because we have new employees coming in, getting put into a classroom with no training on how to take care of our most vulnerable, or SPED students. And that ropes into our safety language that we're asking for too, because either the student can get hurt or the employee can get hurt, or both. And we want a safe environment for not only our staff, but our students,” Logan said.
She says district representatives have shut down conversations about how training might occur in-house to save money. Logan says ESSA is willing to go back to the table to negotiate and blames the district reps for not moving on any of the open articles.
“Until they indicate they are prepared to move. We have no choice but to pursue the legal remedies of arbitration and maybe a potential strike. We just want the district to come back and bring some movement,” Logan said.
Chief School Administrator, Karen Maline, says the district will look for compromise over the summer, but with a $17 million dollar deficit, there isn’t money for the items being asked.
“ Our negotiating team will continue to see if there's articles that can be agreed upon before arbitration, and it is a difficult process in our, in the current climate," Maline said.
She says negotiations are taking a psychological toll.
“It, it's difficult for us on our negotiating team because we do value, highly value our educators, and we want them to feel respected, but we're completely restrained by our budget situation.”
All parties will meet together with an arbiter on August 7th. In the following two days, each union will meet separately.
