Teachers contract dispute contentious

BREWER – The contract dispute between Brewer’s teachers union and its school committee continues to be a source of strain for representatives from both sides of the issue.

Now in its third month, the contract impasse between the Brewer Education Association and the school committee has been both contentious and public.

As the contract dispute continues, BEA members have brought attention to their cause by picketing at local schools and public meetings and by taping fliers that read “Another Brewer teacher without a contract” to their car and truck windows. They’ve also circulated a pamphlet urging the public to support their cause by attending school committee meetings.

The previous contract with the Brewer Education Association expired Aug. 31, Superintendent Allan Snell said earlier. Since then, teachers have continued working under the terms of their previous labor pact.

Representatives from both sides of the divide cite salary and benefits as the two main points of contention.

Ross Ferrell, the Maine Education Association negotiator for the teachers, said earlier that the teachers and administrators reached a tentative contract agreement in early February, but that the school committee rejected it in a 5-0 vote.

Since then, three mediation sessions have failed to result in an agreement and the dispute moved into the fact-finding phase. The second of two fact-finding sessions was conducted on Nov. 9.

In addition, the teachers union filed a prohibitive practice complaint with the Maine Labor Relations Board. The complaint alleges, among other things, that the school committee negotiated in “bad faith.” A hearing on the complaint has not yet been scheduled.

According to MLRB Executive Director Marc Ayotte, a three-member panel comprised of a neutral chairman, an employee representative and an employer representative is leading the fact-finding process.

The panel is charged with processing the arguments presented by both sides of the contract dispute and issuing a report that will include, among other things, a recommendation for resolution, Ayotte said in a telephone interview this week.

Once issued, the report will remain confidential for 30 days. The BEA and the school committee, which hired the Portland law firm Drummond, Woodsum & MacMahon to negotiate on its behalf, will then return to the table for post-fact-finding mediation sessions, Ayotte said.

Should that fail to result in a new contract, he said, the two groups will proceed to arbitration, the results of which are binding except in the areas of wages, pensions and insurance. According to Ayotte, few contract disputes reach the arbitration stage. In typical years, the MLRB sees only one or two such cases.