Kenosha Teachers Seek Agreement to Strike
The Kenosha Education Association Tuesday (February
19, 2002) asked the school board to agree to a procedure that would allow
its members to engage in a legal strike.
| Update: On February 26, the Kenosha Unified
School Board rejected the KEA's request for a voluntary impasse
procedure.
------------------------------- Voluntary impasse
resolution procedure The section of Wisconsin statutes that regulates bargaining between
teachers and school boards (111.70) includes the following provision: 111.70(4)(cm)5. 'Voluntary impasse resolution procedures.'
In addition to the other impasse resolution procedures provided
in this paragraph, a municipal employer and labor organization may
at any time, as a permissive subject of bargaining, agree in writing
to a dispute settlement procedure, including authorization for a
strike by municipal employees or binding interest arbitration, which
is acceptable to the parties for resolving an impasse over terms
of any collective bargaining agreement under this subchapter. A
copy of such agreement shall be filed by the parties with the commission.
If the parties agree to any form of binding interest arbitration,
the arbitrator shall give weight to the factors enumerated under
subds. 7., 7g. and 7r. Go
to the statute
|
| |
State law prohibits teacher strikes, but it makes an
exception if the school board and union agree to a strike as part of a
"voluntary impasse resolution" procedure. In effect, that means
that if the school agrees, members of a local teachers union can legally
go on strike.
KEA President Ellen Kupfer said the union decided to
pursue the voluntary impasse resolution procedure Tuesday after mediation
attempts "ground to a halt." Like more than 300 teacher locals
throughout the state, KEA members have been working without a current
contract since June 2001.
Kupfer said the union had polled its membership and
received overwhelming support to proceed with the strike request.
Although many consider it unlikely that the school board
would agree to a teachers strike -- and at least two board members immediately
told the Kenosha News they opposed the request -- it is possible. And
the union is very serious about engaging in a legal strike, Kupfer said.
"If I didn't believe we had the support of our
membership to do this, we would never have brought it forward," she
said. "We have done what I consider milder job actions such as wearing
red buttons, picketing school board meetings, and working to the contract,
but that's not enough anymore."
Kupfer said that if the board rejects the strike request,
"we have a whole long job action plan that intensifies in a step-by-step
process."
"This (voluntary impasse resolution procedure request)
is not our trump card," she said.
Kupfer said she expected other teacher unions throughout
the state to consider seeking strike agreements under the voluntary impasse
resolution procedure.
"We are a little farther along in the process than
many other local associations," she said. "As frustration grows
and the process falls apart in other areas, they will come to the same
situation as we're in. It's just a matter of time."
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Posted February 20, 2002