WANTED -- A New Contract

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Pay increases, benefits, sought
by Classified Employees Association.

CEA Protesters crowd with signs and banners demanding an end to negotiations over a new contract

WASILLA, Alaska --Having, over the course of better than a year, reached a stale-mate in negotiating the issue of a new contract, the Classified Employees Association and the Matanuska-Susitna School District agreed to invite the aid of Thomas Levak, an arbitrator from Happy Valley, Oregon.

Levak has a distinguished record in arbitration of similar suits in several states, including his aid in breaking a 2008 impasse in negotiations over changes to the then-current Alaska DOC/Alaska Correctional Officers Association labor contract.

In a given opinion found surprising to some, Levak has rendered an advisory opinion on the negotiations, coming out decidedly in favor of District interests, leaving Association representatives grumbling at the result.

According to president of the Classified Employees Association, Rick Byrnes, Association negotiators are holding out for a new three-year contract, which would include an annual cost-of-living increases, incremental raises in each of FY's 2011 and 2012, wage adjustments for specific types of employees (such as maintenance workers, who are required to acquire and maintain specialty ceritfications and licensing to qualify for those positions), and that Member contributions to an insurance program be frozen at 10 percent for full-time employees. These are merely the most remarkable among the many stipulations brought to the table by the Association.

District representatives countered by proposing limitation of the agreement to only two years, rather than three, with no built-in guarantee of any kind of wage increase, as well as raising worker insurance contributions to 20 percent. Also on the block were five of the 'floating holidays' allowed, by present contract, to Association Members each year, which District officials sought to have dropped from the present lengthy and exhaustive list of Association Member benefits.

Mr. Levak's opinion advocated to the District little in the way of comprimise, noting that "the District's financial status is extremely fragile and any increase in salary, regardless how small, would likely tilt the district into a position where closures and/or layoffs would be the [District's] only remedy."

Suggesting the possibility that Mat-Su Borough Assembly might be induced to raise the amount it contributes to the district in the next fiscal year, Levak proposed a one-year agreement be accepted by the Association. He also strongly recommended the District offer no salary increase, but came down in favor of a [lesser] increase in workers' contributions to the insurance program, advocating raising premiums from 10 percent to only 15 percent, rather than the 20 percent needed to sustain District financial viability.

CEA Members sit in on negotiations over a new contract

Byrnes showed significant disappointment over the arbitrator's given opinion.

District superintendent George Troxel, on the other hand, was in full sopport of the arbitrator's opinion.

Without providing substantive logic to back his assertion, Byrnes claimed, "This advisory opinion is shortsighted and destructive to the Mat-Su economy." He failed to articulate how a bankrupt, unmaintained School District would benefit the future of Borough students. It is fair to note here that, prior to Levak's advisory, Association negotiators were more than eager for the imposition of an arbitrated opinion.

In an attempt to moderate Association angst over the advisory, Troxel issued a written statement: "The reality of our financial situation requires that we look to contain costs at all levels. I value highly the work that our employees do, and I know it is critically important in the accomplishment of our mission."

The role of Classified Employees in the district varies greatly, with duties ranging from building maintenance engineers and janitors, to adminstrative secretaries and classroom assistants for teachers of special-needs students.

District and Association representatives are scheduled to attend one last required meeting during the course of the next month. Rick Byrnes commented that, if the District cannot forced into an agreement at that time, they will have no choce but to impose an undisclosed "last, best offer", which would likely, in turn, trigger an Association "job action". Prompted by Association leaders, Mat-Su School District employees would then cease working precisely at the limits of the present contract, stage 'informational' pickets, and, if yet unsuccessful in eliciting District compliance, graduate to engaging in a workers' strike. Byrnes' comments seemed disingenuous, at best, when he stated he was not in favor of a strike.

It is safe to say that the Association feels it has the District at a disadvantage, while the District feels it has no choice but to meet its fiscal responsibilities as well as its obligation to students by making choices based on economically sound principle. Negotiations are at a stand-still, even given the input of a mutually agreed-upon arbitrator, and in such a state, do not bode well for the chances at an equitable resolution to this impasse.