A more serious take on collective bargaining

I read with great interest Jaime Vergara’s column in Monday’s Saipan Tribune. Vergara is a colleague of mine in the PSS, as well as a thoughtful and concerned man, writer, and teacher. However, I completely disagree with his take on the collective bargaining issue. I would concede Vergara’s premise that island culture is highly sensitive to disrupted social relations, and confrontational tactics might have quick but destructive lightning powers on teacher/board relations. I would like to add my own equally reasonable premise that the powers that be—the board, commissioner—also know island culture is highly sensitive to disrupted social relations, and confrontational tactics might create discomfort. I can then conclude that perhaps this island culture might be employed to keep things exactly as they are, which is what they (board, commissioner) seem to want. The board has completely ignored the teacher representatives, marginalized and ignored its own board member Ambrose Bennett, not responded to teacher initiatives on collective bargaining, and now, according to what Bennett has told the representatives, high school teachers have two Praxis tests to take, a second one in their subject. So now the cost burden on high school teachers is doubled to $180. The commissioner said she would be discussing this issue with teachers, but a month into the school year, not even a word has been communicated to us in any official way. To make matters worse, the teacher contract says PSS can make teachers teach any subject at any school at any time, so even though I don’t know anything about algebra, they can tell me to teach algebra, and then naturally I’d have to take that Praxis test, which I have no chance of passing. In addition, if I teach English and science, it would follow that I now have three Praxis tests to take. If I’m near retirement age and teaching fine arts, as is the case with some teachers I’ve spoken with, I have to try to re-learn algebra, 30 years since college, to take the Praxis I to prove that, despite 30 years of teaching experience, I know how to teach. All of this also can be used to remove squeaky wheels from the system. This is not the only thing I find outrageous. At one of our earlier teacher representative meetings I met a teacher who told me she was systematically fired and then re-hired so the board can avoid ever moving her up on the salary ladder. Teachers can be fired without cause. The teachers’ contract says PSS has financial problems and the teacher may or may not get paid. Sounds like a more honest Saipan University, doesn’t it? When the governor’s initiative to reimburse teachers for classroom expenses and materials went into effect, did the Board of Education applaud? No. In a power struggle with the governor they questioned who owns the materials when the teacher leaves PSS since the materials are on PSS property. It is funny that I didn’t hear any concern about the cost of the paint I, and countless others, paid for my classroom, or the fees many teachers at my school paid to professionally wax the dirty floors. The paint won’t be going with the departing teacher and neither will the “now” clean floor. So, to speak metaphorically about Mr. Vergara’s argument, when someone is jabbing a sharp implement up my colon, my response isn’t to wait until they feel it is time to address my discomfort so as not to upset any vestige of harmony between us; my response would be immediately and emphatically “volatile and patently divisive,” to use Vergara’s words. Unless, in the near future, a group of teacher representatives is going to actively engage the board on this bargaining issue, be bargained with in good faith for once by the board, or teachers hire a lawyer to take the necessary steps, including a lawsuit and or national labor relations board claim if things don’t improve, I will urge my teachers, and all teachers, to form their own organization that is mildly serious about changing things and not just silently getting screwed over for the sake of short-term relations with a board that has shown teachers, and the labor laws, little to no respect.

Jeffrey C. Turbitt
As Lito