Contract Negotiations Enter into a Summer of Discontent

Tuesday night’s meeting of the Bridgewater-Raritan Board of Education (BR-BOE) was brief. It was not punctuated – as were so many of the others – by large, but orderly protests outside the Wade Administration Building in Martinsville, or by overflow outpourings of union membership inside the conference room. 

Bridgewater resident Mr. Benjamin Jones
addresses the BR-BOE. (Bergeron Image.)

But low union turnout is no indication of undiminished interest in the still hot issue of the simmering, unsettled contract negotiations for Bridgewater-Raritan teachers.

During the public comment segment of the BR-BOE meeting, longtime Bridgewater resident Benjamin Jones stepped up to the microphone to remind the board that the contract issue will not be forgotten during the summer. 

He stressed that “If you don’t have good morale [among the teaching staff] you are missing the boat . . . I’m asking you to please do what you can to settle the contract . . . It just doesn’t make sense when [we hear] from a governor who is demonizing teachers and [who] considers them evil.” 

Jones further indicated that “There is no reason it should have gone this long . . . there’s got to be some middle ground.”

*****

At the conclusion of the BR-BOE meeting, Mr. Steve Beatty, President of the Bridgewater-Raritan Education Association (BREA), described an overview of how the current process may roll out:

He indicated that we are “Waiting for fact-finding to begin on July 26^th” with a “State-appointed fact-finder,” and that the meeting “will go on as long as necessary.”

Further elaborating upon the process, Beatty said that “we will try to mediate a deal on the first day or two . . . If it doesn’t work out, then [the formal] fact-finding process will begin.”  He expressed hope that there “could be a deal at the end of the first session [on July 26^th ].”

However:  Should no agreement be reached, the process will enter into its next phase which consists of a formal “fact-finding mode,” followed by the filing of a report from the mediator. 

Board members Cindy Cullen,
Daniel Petrozelli, Jeffrey Brookner,
and Lynne Hurley, at the June 26,
2012 Board Meeting. (Bergeron Image.)

It’s important to note that a new mediator, Mr. Joel Weisblatt, has been appointed to direct the process.  Beatty said that he has “heard good things about him” . . . and that he “is one of the giants in the business . . . he’s a big man and a big presence.”  Beatty went on to express his view that “on the 26^th, [Mr. Weisblatt] will bang heads on both sides.”

If, at this point in the attempt to reach an agreement, the result is a stalemate, Mr. Beatty outlined what is likely to occur:  “Both sides bring in file cabinets . . . both sides make a formal presentation . . . [Then the mediator] goes away for a few weeks and writes a non-binding report with his recommendation.

Mr. Beatty underscored that the mediator’s recommendation and conclusions “become a matter of public record after ‘X’ number of days.”  Yet neither party is obligated to accept the findings and recommendation of the mediator.

That’s about it for the time being.

To summarize: 

An agreement could be reached shortly after July 26^th, without the need to engage in the formal fact-finding process and the subsequent issuance of a report and recommendation by Mr. Weisblatt, the mediator.

Or,

Without such an agreement, it’s highly possible that the process could drag on throughout the summer months, and that the new school year could begin without a contract between the teachers’ union and the board of education.

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At the conclusion of Monday evening’s Planning Board meeting at the Bridgewater Township Municipal Complex, I was able to speak with BR-BOE President, Evan Lerner. 

Mr. Lerner spoke that evening before the Planning Board to offer his views about the housing development being proposed for a large tract of land to the north of Foothill Road, on property formerly owned by deceased Bridgewater resident, Mr. John Wemple. 

He expressed his concern about the potential for increased water runoff on Middle School property.

Taking advantage of his presence to seek further clarification from the BR-BOE’s point of view, I inquired of Mr. Lerner if he would refresh this writer and his readers on the status of contract negotiations as they currently stand with the Board of Education’s Negotiations Team, including the team’s last best offer presented to the BREA.

Lerner said that he was not at liberty to discuss that matter, as he was still bound by a non-disclosure agreement entered into with the BREA. 

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