Mount Diablo Unified’s teachers union has asked a state mediator to help resolve an impasse in negotiations with the school district that so far has left both sides more than 5% apart over pay raises.
Although the negotiations are still in the early stage, union officials already are hinting that an impasse could potentially lead to a teachers strike in a district that serves 29,000 students in Concord, Clayton and most of Pleasant Hill, as well as parts of Walnut Creek, Martinez, Pittsburg and Lafayette.
According to district officials, the union’s demand for a 12.5% raise over three years is unrealistic given budget constraints. Instead, the district is offering a 7% raise over three years.
That hasn’t flown with leaders of the 1,500-member Mount Diablo Education Association, which held a rally Dec. 7 at Monte Gardens Elementary in Concord to call attention to the stalled negotiations.
“The District has sufficient sources of on-going revenue to fund a 12.5% increase over three years and remain financially sound,” union President Anita Johnson said in a statement. “Our hope is the Trustees will eventually realize that the best use of this increased revenue is to ensure that they can continue to serve students by attracting and retaining the best employees.”
Because the union declared an impasse on Dec. 13, the state Public Employment Relations Board will refer the case to a mediator tasked with seeking a compromise between the two negotiating parties.
If a compromise can’t be reached, both sides will need to enter a fact-finding stage during which the district’s financial means will be weighed against the union’s salary demands. If that doesn’t resolve anything, the union may consider a strike, Johnson said in the statement.
This latest skirmish between district and labor union caps a year that began with a similar standstill, when the Mount Diablo Education Association resisted reopening classrooms in the winter as COVID-19 cases declined across the county.
At the time, the union insisted that COVID cases needed to drop further in the district’s hardest-hit communities — not just the region at large — before teachers could feel comfortable returning to classrooms.
The two sides worked out an agreement before spring break, although resentment among parents who wanted to see classrooms open earlier boiled over into a short-lived recall effort against the school board.
District officials hope this round of negotiations will be less contentious.
“We are going to go through the impasse process and continue to bargain in good faith and we’re going to try to reach an agreement,” Superintendent Adam Clark said in a statement.
Source: www.mercurynews.com