Support for collective bargaining rights for teachers appears thin on the Williamsburg-James City County School Board.
At a work session earlier this week, some members expressed hesitation to granting collective bargaining rights to teachers, instead offering alternatives that resemble a similar setup. The board is expected to vote Sept. 17.
The expected vote comes at the end of a 120-day timeline set in motion when a majority of teachers in the district submitted signatures for an affidavit letting the school system know they are in favor of obtaining collective bargaining.
“I was disappointed by the general tone of the conversation,” Williamsburg-James City Education Association President Marco Sardi said of Tuesday’s discussion. “It seems like the board is not in favor of hearing from employees in a formal setting, and that’s really disheartening.”
A few board members expressed support for the idea of teachers airing their concerns, but they stopped short of supporting bringing them to the bargaining table.
“I’m still just listening and gathering information,” member Kimberley Hundley said. “I would love a way (for) teachers to get some of the things that are rightfully and respectfully theirs, because they’re professionals, without a whole lot of money and bargaining.
“I don’t even like bargaining,” Hundley added. “Something about bargaining bothers me.”
Michael Hosang said he’d been working with unions for years and that negotiating with union representatives creates a negative relationship. “It’s very rarely been in a positive light — it’s always been adversarial, but that’s the nature of the beast,” he said.
He said allowing collective bargaining would give up power held by the board.
“Once you give up that power, it’s gone,” Hosang said.
Randy Riffle, however, expressed frustration that the employees were seemingly lacking board support.
He mentioned that the superintendent meets with workers in the school system monthly to hear concerns. “We haven’t given them really an opportunity to do that with a board perspective,” he said.
“This is a tough thing, because I think this is some of our workers saying something to us and we are not giving them maybe the best chance to go about this,” Riffle said. “We were elected to do tough things. We were elected to get baggage.”
Andrew Cason, treasurer of the WJCEA, said after the work session that he hoped the school board would do some more research on what collective bargaining would actually entail, particularly non-adversarial approaches to bargaining.
“The board should look at the resolutions passed in other localities,” Cason said. “If they look closely at those resolutions, there are none that transfer power from the board to any other organization.”
“What a collective bargaining resolution does is set new parameters for writing employee contracts, which include an effort to bargain in good faith with the employee representatives,” he added.
Cason said the size and scope of employees’ issues “requires a process in which we are negotiating partners and not powerless employees begging for changes which leadership is inclined to deny.”
Sam Schaffer, samuel.schaffer@virginiamedia.com
