Published
3 months agoon
Fresno Unified School District is accusing the Fresno Teachers Association of bad faith bargaining in an unfair practice charge submitted to the Public Employment Relations Board, the teachers union says.
PERB oversees disputes between employers and unions.
On its Facebook page, the union is calling the PERB complaint “nothing more than a distraction” that will not deter FTA’s efforts to negotiate for salary, benefits, healthcare, and other issues for the new teachers’ contract.
The old contract, which was extended by a year during the pandemic, is set to expire on June 30. At a rally last month, the assembled teachers indicated their support for FTA to call for a strike authorization vote in October if there is no contract by Sept. 29.
The two sides initiated their contract talks last year by engaging in “interest-based bargaining,” in which both sides try to reach mutual agreement on issues. But after multiple sessions, the talks broke down, and the union submitted its “best, final, and last offer” the same night as the rally on N Street in downtown Fresno.
Related Story: Fresno Teachers Tell Union: If No Contract by Sept. 29, Call A Strike ...
The union says that by submitting the unfair labor practice charge to PERB, Superintendent Bob Nelson is trying to hit the restart button. The district wants PERB to “force FTA to retract our offer to the district and reopen negotiations on bargaining ground rules, effectively restarting the entire process,” the union said on its Facebook page.
FTA also contends that FUSD is falsely claiming that it had been willing to co-create creative solutions, but that “at almost every turn, FTA refused.”
District spokeswoman Nikki Henry said Fresno Unified plans to release a “communication” Friday afternoon on the PERB complaint. Later Friday Henry emailed the communication and the PERB complaint, which the district filed on June 8.
“Fresno Unified is providing this update to clarify information issued by FTA on Fresno Unified’s UPC,” the communication says.
They include:
FTA President Manuel Bonilla said Friday afternoon that the union hopes the PERB filing will not delay the contract negotiations.
As for the district being a willing bargaining partner, “Anyone who has followed the process would be able to see how unprepared they were,” Bonilla said in a text message to GV Wire. “However, they claimed that they came to the meetings ready to discuss solutions and that we refused to talk. The reality is that they were often unprepared, didn’t have the right people in the room, or would say ‘we’ll get back to you’ and never follow up.”
Bonilla said the district took similar action in 2016, but it was dismissed by PERB.
According to the school district’s communication, the district and union are scheduled to meet again on Thursday.
Nancy Price is a multimedia journalist for GV Wire. A longtime reporter and editor who has worked for newspapers in California, Florida, Alaska, Illinois and Kansas, Nancy joined GV Wire in July 2019. She previously worked as an assistant metro editor for 13 years at The Fresno Bee. Nancy earned her bachelor's and master's degrees in journalism at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism. Her hobbies include singing with the Fresno Master Chorale and volunteering with Fresno Filmworks. You can reach Nancy at 559-492-4087 or Send an Email
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