East Lansing Teachers’ Union Votes in Favor of New Contract
East Lansing Education Association members voted 88-27 in favor of a tentative agreement between the teachers’ union and East Lansing Public Schools administration. The district’s school board will vote on the agreement at its Monday, Sept. 8 meeting.
Teachers’ union members narrowly defeated a proposed contract last month, sending negotiators from both sides back to the drawing board.
ELi spoke with Ross Gorman, lead negotiator and former president of the teachers’ union. He said negotiators made varying concessions on three main issues that led union members to reject the previously proposed contract.
The 1% raise offered did not budge, but the salary for teachers at the top of the pay scale will receive an additional 1% off-schedule payment instead of the half percent previously proposed. Gorman likened this additional payment to a bonus check for teachers with the most seniority.
The district made bigger concessions on two other points: healthcare and a sick-day bank for teachers.
“The healthcare language was concerning in the first tentative agreement,” Gorman said, “with the district possibly having the ability to change plans or providers on kind of a whim. That was addressed and returned to the old language that secures the current providers and plans for the duration of the contract. That was a full concession to the desires of the teachers.”
Gorman said the district’s concession to the third sticking point, the bank of sick days, was fairly generous. Teachers proposed that they be allowed to donate sick days to a bank, which can be used by a teacher who needs to take an extended leave. Instead of teachers having to pay in one of their days of sick leave, Gorman said the district “ponied up the days to fund the bank itself.”
Administration, however, will have representation on the board of individuals who can approve or deny use of those banked sick days, something that educators scoffed at in the failed agreement. But Gorman said that the district guaranteed access to the bank for new mothers.
When asked if he was confident that the school board would approve the contract, Gorman said he viewed it largely “as a rubber-stamping.”
“[The board] selects [Superintendent] Dori [Leyko] in good faith and the team of administrators to bargain,” he said. “To reject this would be a complete, I think, undermining of their own team.”
ELi reached out to board President Chris Martin and Treasurer Kath Edsall to gauge their support for the agreement. Edsall said it would likely be approved.
“I do not see any scenario where we vote against it,” Martin said in a text message.
If the board approves the agreement at its next meeting, it will bring seven months of negotiations to a close. ELi asked Gorman what he learned in his first time at the table of contract negotiations.
“We did learn that we do not have that captive audience in the summer,” Gorman said after some consideration. “It’s very difficult to discuss issues and to have really robust back and forth dialogue.”
He also said that he wants to push the union to have competitive elections for its negotiation team in future cycles.
“Having a team of people who are dedicated to come back to the table time and time again and develop a little experience,” he said. “Having that institutional knowledge…I think that is an important thing to bring to the table.”