Collective Bargaining: Root Cause or Solution

As the Ohio legislature moves forward on new policies regarding school turnaround, it’s become clear that many legislators, particularly from one party, are willing to use our schools and our students as a smokescreen for attacking our hard-fought collective bargaining agreements.

Many of these legislators are ideologically opposed to collective bargaining. They may tell you that they are not. They may not actively support Right-to-Work legislation that would undercut unions. They may even vote against bills that are exclusively about eliminating collective bargaining. But pay close attention to the language that is being used when they talk about collective bargaining and the lines that are being slipped into legislation, like the substitute version of HB 154 that is currently in the Senate.

HB 154 is the legislation passed overwhelmingly with bi-partisan support in the House this spring. The bill eliminates the Academic Distress Commissions established by HB 70 and restores local control to school districts.

The substitute bill introduced by the Senate maintains some of that local control; however, it contains language that clearly shows the bias against collective bargaining.

The last time that teachers’ collective bargaining rights were under attack, 60% of Ohioans voted to repeal SB5 and protect collective bargaining for teachers and other public service workers. (Photo: leaders from Berea Federation of Teachers protest SB 5)

For example, the substitute version of the bill requires all districts that fall under the plan to do a root cause analysis to determine the problems in the district that need to be addressed in an improvement plan. In the original sub-bill, collective bargaining agreements were included in the list of items that were to be included in the root cause analysis.

Yes, you read that right. This bill was actually listing the collective bargaining agreement as something that might be the root cause of problems in a district. This demonstrates either a blatant contempt for collective bargaining or a complete misunderstanding about what collective bargaining actually is.

Through long conversations, OFT and our allies were able to get that language removed; however, the part of the bill that deals with districts falling under a school improvement committee actually has much harsher language that completely eliminates all collective bargaining rights.

This false notion that collective bargaining agreements are the root causes for students not reaching achievement goals is one that defies the reality of what collective bargaining actually does.

Collective bargaining is a process where both labor and management put an issue on the table and jointly try to resolve it. Time after time, collective bargaining solves problems. A contract itself is never a root cause problem.

How can collective bargaining solve problems?

1. The process causes both labor and management to identify the actual problem and root cause and focus on the solutions. On the other hand, if a contract is simply eliminated, time is wasted on issues that may have little or no impact on student outcomes.
2. The process forces both labor and management to take ownership of an issue. When one side is given unilateral control, it usually results in unilateral buy-in as well.
3. Collective bargaining provides an opportunity for those who are closest to the work to offer solutions that are rooted in reality. A decision made from the top down without input from the teachers, paraprofessionals, and support staff who are working with the students often results in a quick fix that might result in a decision that has little impact on the problem — such as lengthening a school day to provide more instructional time when the best solution might actually be adding a teacher who can give more intensive focused instruction to a small group of students who need more help.

All across the country we have seen examples of how union members have used the collective bargaining process to put solutions on the table for improving the learning conditions of students whether it is at Summit Academy in Parma, OH, where an instructional aide has been added to every classroom to give students more focused attention, or in Chicago and L.A. where members bargained for more counselors and school nurses to address both the mental and physical health challenges impacting our children.

OFT is proud to be a solution-driven union, and we will continue to fight to preserve collective bargaining which gives us a process for identifying problems and putting solutions on the table.

We need you to be engaged in this effort also. Call your Senator. Remind them that in 2011, over 60% of Ohioans voted to preserve collective bargaining. Explain why collective bargaining is important to you and ask that collective bargaining be preserved in any bill that deals with improving outcomes in a district.