Teachers' Union Contract Talks Sent to 'Fact Finding'

The drawn out Andover teachers' union contract negotiations are still ongoing despite the use of a state-appointed mediator. Now, the negotiating teams will be forced to enter the 'fact finding' phase, which occurs when a mediator cannot resolve issues during a town or city's contract negotiations with a collective bargaining unit.

"We were notified last week that the because the mediation process has not led to a final resolution of a contract, the Division of Labor Relations has certified the process to fact finding," said School Committee chairman Annie Gilbert.

Meanwhile, the High School Schedule Task Force began work recently to reslove the contract's main issue, changes in the high school schedule.

Negotiations over the Andover Education Association's contract began in June of 2010 and teachers have been working without a new contract since August of 2010. Stipulations of the old contract are still in effect. At the start of the year, teachers agreed to , which means teachers will only do work stipulated in their contract and nothing extra, like writing college recommendations.

School Committee chairman Annie Gilbert said that fact finding involves a neutral party researching and then presenting both sides of the issue to both parties in a report.

"The mediator is passing it on to the State Labor Relations Board, who appoints a fact finder, who is a neutral party...and each side presents their positions and all of the pertinent information that is relative to their positions," said Gilbert. "The fact finder then writes a report and both parties are required to bargain over that report."

Gilbert made sure to point out that, at this stage, the school and the teachers can come to a resolution at any point and do not have to wait for the "fact finding" process to be completed.

Teachers were present at a School Committee meeting last week and spoke their mind about how the whole process is being conducted. Many others stood in the meeting room and held signs in support of the teachers.

West Elementary School teacher Frank McCall said he was surprised that the process has gotten to this point.

"I didn’t know this was going to fact finding. This is embarrassing that we are turning this over to the [Division of Labor Relations]," said McCall. "I don’t know how we got to this point."

McCall continued on the same point.

"I don’t know where this is going but things are very bad. The environment is not the one where we want to be conducting the business of education," said McCall. "It is frustratingly slow for us."

The last negotiation session was Jan. 18.