MADISON TOWNSHIP — Madison School Board President Jeff Meyers has 23 years experience on the BOE. Never once has he had to deal with teachers using Work to Rule, or a soft strike, in an effort to resolve a contract dispute.
As of Monday, the teachers began “Work to Rule” as a tactic to finalize negotiations of their contracts, said Kathie Jansen, a Mifflin Elementary teacher and Madison Local Education Association spokesperson.
“Work to Rule” is when union members work to only what their contracts mandate. Jansen said the union members are working under the guidelines of contract that expired on July 31, she noted. MLEA President Mike Leeper said that contract was extended while the two sides bargained. They have had 13 bargaining sessions, one with a state mediator.
In a letter to school principals, Leeper said teachers have been given general directives that were not bargained for and violate their pact.
“Members will no longer do the extras that fall outside of contract language and contracted hours,” the letter reads. “Being on committees, Leader-In-Me assignments (a program emphasizing students with college, career, and life-readiness skills), clocking in, etc, will not be followed.”
Contract negotiations began in spring of 2018, but issues have resulted in a standstill.
“Teachers get there early and stay late, we come in on weekends,” Jansen said. “Very rarely do you see a teacher come in at 8:15 and leave when the school day is over, but we feel under-appreciated and under-valued by the board and some administrators.”
Meyers said that is not the case.
“It takes two to tango,” said Meyers, who is not part of the negotiations team. “If you’re in a negotiation, both sides need to negotiate in good faith. I don’t believe that’s happened.”
Meyers added the MLEA has stuck to its original demands and has not budged from them. It is against Ohio Board Policy for board members to discuss negotiations in detail.
“The problem so far is that there hasn’t been anything given that we can even counter with,” Meyers said.
Andrew Burton, negotiating team leader and attorney for the board, offered the following statement:
“The Board will not conduct negotiations in the press, but will respect the process as outlined in the Collective Bargaining Agreement that is still in full force and effect between the Board and the Madison teachers. Only the bargaining teams may negotiate directly with each other at the bargaining table.”
According to a Work to Rule document, the contractual issues of concern are teacher prep time, class size, teacher placement, teacher transfer procedure, teacher layoff procedure, and “other issues that affect our students and their learning conditions.”
“We are limited to what we can say about specifics,” Leeper said. “We have no tentative agreements on any of the issues.”
Jansen said she believes it is time for teachers to be given an emphasis.
“I really think you can’t put students first if teachers are last,” Jansen said. “I think that saying applies here. We do so much for our students, and we care so much, but enough is enough.”
Jansen explained daily demands for teachers are increasing, creating a decrease in commutable time to planning lessons for students.
Meyers said he didn’t know about that, but added teachers are supposed to have time to prepare for their lessons.
Students will not see a difference in the classroom, Jansen said, though extracurricular activities will come to a halt. Volunteer coaches in the MLEA will no longer participate in athletics. Those with supplemental contracts will continue their obligations.
“Our concerns are for children’s learning ability,” she said. “Everything we do from the time we walk in to the time we walk out is planned by us. We don’t have a script to follow. When time is sacrificed (doing other things asked of teachers) we have to do it on our own time.”
Jansen said no negation meeting between the school board and the MLEA is scheduled.
