A Few Thoughts about Salary Increases & Benefits

While reading through the two statements that were released to the public last night, one from the Bridgewater-Raritan Board of Education, and the other from its counterpart, the teachers’ union, I began to think of how upside down these negotiations must seem to anyone taking the time to read the press releases.
 
If you haven’t yet ploughed through them, please do so.  They are well worth the reading, I assure you.
 
Several thoughts occurred to me, as I was preparing to post the statements to this blog today:

·         These talks have gone on far too long.

·         The mediation sessions are a hindrance, not a help.

·         The average person with an average job would salivate at the offers which have been described in one of those press releases.

·         It’s time to kick out the mediator and to do what should have happened long ago:  Get in a room by yourselves, lock the door, and don’t come out until you have a deal.

·         Don’t forget to take it easy on the rest of us who have to pay the bills.

 
There is more, but I wanted to keep this post brief.

Education Association Expresses Dismay at Status of Negotiations

The statement below by representatives of the Bridgewater-Raritan Education Association was released last night.  It is presented in its entirety, and follows the Board of Education’s own statement also released yesterday on the status of negotiations.   

Talks have been ongoing since early last year, and both sides still appear to be deadlocked.  The board and the union are scheduled to enter into a fact-finding session in about three weeks, according to a statement made by BR-BOE President, Evan Lerner at last evening’s board meeting.

*********************************************

Bridgewater-Raritan Education Association, Excellence in Education

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:               Steve Beatty                                                                       March 27, 2012
                               (908) 672-4325

Mediator Sends BREA & BOE to Fact-Finding
As the hour got late at the last mediation between the negotiations teams representing the Bridgewater-Raritan Education Association and Bridgewater-Raritan BOE, the state appointed mediator at last declared that the two sides would not be able to settle and would be referred to a state appointed fact-finder.

“Sure we’re disappointed in this fact because we were cautiously optimistic after our face to face with the board a few weeks prior where we had a great chance to settle” said Steve Beatty, social studies teacher and president of the BREA.

Board of Education Discloses Details of Labor Negotiations

Below is the full text of the Bridgewater-Raritan Board of Education's press release of last evening.  It contains a series of best offers made to its teachers' union, the Bridgewater-Raritan Education Association, as well as the union’s responses.

The two parties have been negotiating unsuccessfully since early last year, have since engaged in formal mediation sessions, and are now deadlocked. They are scheduled to
enter into fact-finding in about three weeks.

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NEGOTIATIONS UPDATE

March 27, 2012

On March 15, 2012, the Board’s negotiation team participated in the third mediation session with the BREA’s negotiating team. The session lasted almost five hours. Unfortunately, the sides were unable to come to an agreement.

At the end of the session the mediator advised that he believed future mediation sessions were unlikely to lead to a settlement. As a result, per his referral, the parties will enter fact finding, the next stage in the legal process. It is anticipated that fact finding will commence in approximately three weeks. The fact finding process can last up to approximately six months.

Two issues dominated the back and forth of the parties during the three mediation sessions, instructional time requirements for high school teachers and salary.

The Politics of the Weed Patch

During the week, I’ve had to do a great deal of outdoor work in order to get the garden in shape under the challenge of an early and demanding spring.  Each year, I’m reminded that Mother Nature does not stand still for anyone who chooses to ignore her. 

Crocuses announce an early spring on March 7, 2012
(Bergeron Image)

I’ve also come to understand that, when gardening with someone else, you must work as a team. The days are short, and there is no time to be fretted away in fruitless discussions about how to get things done.

There are shrubs to be trimmed; holes to be dug for new plantings; mulch to be spread, and other related chores that won’t wait.  If you don’t move along, the day flies by, and not much work gets accomplished.  Ignore what needs doing and, by summer, you end up with what resembles an unattractive weed patch.

Just observe a gardening crew that gets paid to do this work professionally:  You can’t help but notice how most of the workers are well supervised, know what to do, and work quickly in unison to get the job done.

As I was digging in a spot for a small Spirea bush which needed to be transplanted to the front yard, it occurred to me that much of the dysfunction which is being observed in the political sphere these days could be easily compared to that of a garden which has not been well-tended.

Parties Negotiating Bridgewater-Raritan Schools Labor Contract Remain Apart

On Thursday evening, March 15, negotiators for the Bridgewater-Raritan Board of Education and their counterparts for the Bridgewater-Raritan Education Association met at a mediation session held at the Wade Administration Building in Martinsville. 

Mr. Dave Doheny, a member of the teachers' union
 negotiating team is shown taking notes at the Board of
Education meeting on February 29, 2012.  (Bergeron Image)

They had hoped to make progress in their ongoing labor contract negotiations – but, to no avail.

Reached early Friday morning, Bridgewater-Raritan Board of Education President Evan Lerner was succinct in his comments:  “The news is that we did not reach a settlement last night.  We (the B-R BOE) need to regroup and figure out what the next step is, and what comment is appropriate” to provide for the public.

Mr. Lerner was reluctant to disclose any specifics of that meeting.  It was still early in the morning when I contacted him, and members of the board had yet to be briefed.

School Officials and Union Continue to Negotiate

Tonight, at the Wade Administration Building, two negotiation teams, one for the Bridgewater-Raritan School District, and the other for the Bridgewater-Raritan Education Association, will meet again.  They will continue to discuss their positions and offers at an official mediation session. 

Burning the midnight oil at the Wade Administration Building

Previously, according to Board President Evan Lerner, the teams had met on February 29, 2012 to swap views informally.

In a brief talk with me this afternoon Mr. Lerner acknowledged that the key topics center on the provider of the union’s health care plan; teacher work rules; and salary.

In a prior interview with Lerner on February 6th, he had been hopeful that a consensus might have been reached on a potential savings of $80,000 per month in health care premiums to the current 2011/2012 school budget ending June 30^th, but that did not happen.

Also on the negotiating table are the length of the teacher work day, and the salary issue.

‘Eagle Writers’

Mr. Joseph Diskin, upper center, presents the Eisenhower
Intermediate School writing program to a
packed conference room. (Bergeron Image)

The topic presented and discussed at Bridgewater-Raritan’s School Board meeting several weeks ago by Mr. Joseph Diskin, Principal of the Eisenhower Intermediate School is one of my favorites – writing.
 
When Mr. Diskin began his PowerPoint presentation before a conference room full of admiring parents and other observers, ten ‘Eagle Writers’ – all students from Eisenhower – sat  attentively in the front row, concentrating on their principal’s words, in eager anticipation of what would be an opportunity to speak individually about each one's own writing experience.

Sanofi Chief Likes Bay State Biotech

Sanofi-Aventis sign, just outside of the Bridgewater, NJ,
facility on Route 202/206 south. (Bergeron Image)

New Jersey may be the pharmaceutical capital of the east coast, if not of the entire United States, but it’s getting plenty of competition from the Boston area, especially in the market segment of biotechnology. 

Boston has caught the eye of Sanofi chief executive, Christopher A. Viehbacher who, while addressing The Chief Executives’ Club in Boston characterized the Boston-Cambridge area as having “the most fertile environment in the world today,” as a result of  “its innovation ecosystem,” which Viehbacher attributes to “the area’s dense cluster of universities, hospitals, biotechnology start-ups, and venture capital firms.”

That’s very sobering news for New Jersey, because it may very well be true.  Yet, I hope it is not, because it’s already costing New Jersey jobs, something that you may not be fully aware of.

Muzzling the Speaker.

I wonder what’s going on within the leadership of the Clinton Township Board of Education.  At first glance, what is reported to have happened at Monday night’s meeting doesn’t pass the smell test. 

The Red Mill, Clinton, NJ (Infrared Photo Courtesy
Peter Falke/Google Images)

In an article by staff writer Mark Spivey which appeared in today’s print edition of the Courier News, former Clinton Mayor Nick Corcodilos is reported to have been escorted out of a Board of Education meeting by local police.  That occurred after he continued to speak after exceeding the three minutes allocated to persons wishing to address the Board.

Three minutes?  Jeeeesh!!!

According to the Courier News write-up, Jim Dincuff, President of Clinton’s Board of Education called law enforcement to have Corcodilos ejected from the meeting.  Kevin J. Carroll, Clinton Superintendent of Schools supported Dincuff’s action, yet Carroll explained that he tried to have the time for Corcodilos’ comments extended.