The Berkeley Federation of Teachers, or BFT, and Berkeley Unified School District, or BUSD, jointly declared an impasse in their contract renegotiations Nov. 20.
BFT’s demands for higher salaries and stronger healthcare benefits have gone unanswered by the district since September, according to BFT President Matt Meyer. BUSD did not respond to a request for comment.
“We don’t even know what the district thinks,” Meyer said. “They have not actually come to us and said, ‘Well, this is what we think we can afford,’ or ‘This is what our priorities are.’ We’ve just been wondering, because there’s been no real conversation at the negotiations table around that.”
According to BFT’s website, the district covers 56% of educator health care costs. It also states teacher salaries in BUSD are “below the average of comparative districts and in some cases, at the bottom.”
In early January, a state mediator from the California Public Employment Relations Board will attempt to facilitate an agreement. If state-facilitated mediation fails to bring BUSD and BFT to an agreement, the state will give its recommendations in a nonbinding fact-finding report for both parties to use to renegotiate their contract, according to Meyer.
If renegotiations still fail, BUSD can impose their best offer and BFT can counter by voting to authorize a strike, which would occur within 48 hours, according to BFT’s website.
“We are confident that, with the support of mediation and our shared commitment to students, we will reach an agreement that strengthens our schools and supports our educators,” said BUSD Superintendent Enikia Ford Morthel in a press release.
According to BFT’s website, BFT and BUSD began bargaining to reach a new contract in March. Meyer said they have had 17 negotiation sessions since.
The existing labor agreement ended June 30 and teachers represented by BFT began this school year working under the expired contract. Meyer noted that, while it is not uncommon to continue under an expired contract, “it is unusual for it to go this long.”
Meyer said BUSD has increasingly filled case management and other school positions with private contractors.He noted this decision undermines the bargaining power of the separate classified union, which represents employees such as food service workers, bus drivers and custodians whose jobs are being replaced.
“(It’s) just ironic that the district is going to pink slip educators while at the same time paying time and a half or two times what it would cost to hire somebody in-house,” Meyer said.
Out of BFT’s 21 proposals, the union and the district reached tentative agreements on 13 items, according to Ford Morthel’s press release. These include compensation for student accommodations-related meetings that happen outside of work hours, for which BFT had been advocating over the past five years, according to Meyer.
School districts across California are facing similar negotiation breakdowns. Teachers’ unions in Oakland, Los Angeles and San Francisco recently declared impasses, and United Teachers of Richmond in the West Contra Costa Unified School District is on strike.
“We really, as a state, need to make sure that we’re funding public education the way that our students deserve,” Meyer said. “But in the short run, we’re negotiating with our districts to do the best we can to make sure our employees are invested in and our students are invested in.”