ASSOCIATION: "Oh District, we know there are still two grains of rice in our humble beggar's bowl. Yet we know too that you have little rice to spare. We will give you one and a half of these grains back to feed the whole, but please, oh merciful District, leave us but a mere half a grain to sustain our families."
DISTRICT: "Oh, pitiful beggar. We absolutely appreciate the thoughtfulness of your offer and the movement you have shone over the past two months. You started by asking us to add four grains of rice to your earthenware bowl, and have now come to us offering up what you already have. Unfortunately, we do not believe that your offer is enough. We will come back on Thursday, probably to ask you to give up the other half a grain. And we hope you will agree."
This assessment, too, is not quite fair. I have seen a collaborative spirit emerge in the past week with several members of the district's negotiations team. There has been a great deal of discussion of the finer points of the contract, a sharing of numbers, a general understanding that in order to salvage the education of our students and the livelihood of the district's teachers we must work together. And maybe it is this collaborative effort behind the scenes that I have been privy to that makes tonight's meeting all the more difficult. Because I know there are those sitting across the table from me who see our sacrifices, understand our reasoning and logic, and genuinely want to do what is best for our students and staff members.
The teacher's association is trying to be reasonable. We have agreed to taking lesser insurance plans. We have agreed to not get full step increases for next year. We have agreed to provide members with a small incentive to opt out of insurance coverage to save the district massive quantities of money. And we even agreed to give back nearly $30,000 to the district next year if there are unused tuition monies so we can try to save the jobs of teachers, this after we reached agreement on this point with the district earlier in the negotiations process.
And while we are working feverishly to come up with a financial bottom line that we all can live with, we have to defend our reasons for wanting a percentage stake in insurance premiums (a cost that we currently share with the district, the employees paying 7.5% of the monthly premium, the district paying the rest). Really? We can volunteer to take a lesser plan and keep everyone's costs under control, even save the district money at the cost of higher deductibles and co-pays, and you have the gall to ask us if we won't consider a dollar cap? Or an even cheaper insurance option? What more do you need from us? An arm? A leg?
I get the fact that the economy is not rosy, and that there is little hope that the state will find even a little bit of sugar to sweeten the bitter drink that education is being force-fed, but how much more can teachers take when they have given so much already? The district has painted a picture of the association on their website as being unwilling to move from their previous financial packages (this because we decided to wait on a more detailed budget analysis before we came back with a response--we wish to be reasonable, after all). And now, now that we have given up so much, and done so to save jobs, salvage benefits, and keep our students in school, we have...what, exactly?
No agreement, that's what.
Does Hallmark make a "Thanks, but No Thanks Card?" I imagine it might sound a little like this:
"We appreciate your efforts,
and what you say you'll share.
We recognize your compromises
And see clearly you care.
But when the rubber meets the road,
After all you say and do,
We can only disagree
And yell a big "Screw You!"
Again, this is harsh (maybe). But after four months of this, it's hard to not be cynical, to see the glass as half-full. Full of what--lemonade or flesh--remains to be seen.
Wow. A glass of flesh. Now there's a disturbing image.
ReplyDeleteRemember that the lawyer's job is to squeeze every drop of blood she can get from us. Not everyone feels the same way. That's nto to say they won't ask us to pick up the rest of the financial burden this year; they probably will. But only one person at the table will enjoy doing it.
I, too, felt a, "Thanks, but no thanks," vibe from the lawyer. Or perhaps more of a, "Oh, it's cute that you are trying to be creative in saving money, but it isn't what we want, so we'll pretend to think about it." Mrs. Adams did not look happy as she left the meeting though, so that might be something.
ReplyDeleteDusty: You have to love it when a "hired gun" is put in the position as the spokesperson for the district. It's hard to argue for what's right for employees when the person across the table from you has no vested interest in coming to a compromise that allows both sides to leave feeling good, or at least heard.
ReplyDeleteI think it might be a different story if our of our administrators from the district was acting as the lead. Patty, Jeri, and Jaime, I believe, really want to get this settled. Either through conversations with Keith of me, each one of them has been beyond sincere about seeing movement. In short, I don't think that is the will of our immediate supervisors that is holding this thing up. Rather, I have the feeling that it is the person who holds the purse strings (and she is so wrapped up in hitting her own personal "numbers" with the cuts that unless we manage to cut to her level of satisfaction, we'll get nowhere) and our elected school board members(people who are more removed from what it is we do everyday and are, more often than not, on the board because they have their own personal axe to grind with the teachers or the district as a whole).
LK: I know that Patty wants to get this thing done. Desperately. We have been working with her nonstop the past couple of days. I can't count the number of phone calls, emails, and personal visits I've had with her trying to work out every last kink of language before yesterday's meeting. I have truly appreciated her being at the table. She knows when we bring up issues that they are not imagined. She has heard about them directly from us or recognizes that things need to change. I wasn't sure how it was going to work having her be part of bargaining, but I am glad that she decided to do it. I imagine that she was just as frustrated as our team was after that meeting. She wasn't trying to hide the disappointment and disgust on her face.
Ooo, multiple genres . . . I'm impressed as always, both by your talented writing and your Union-Fun-Tonya defense of the profession. Glad to have you on our side!
ReplyDelete