After strike, union questions Shumlin support

The largest union in Vermont is challenging Gov. Peter Shumlin for speaking out against teachers strikes.

During a teachers strike in South Burlington last week, Shumlin told Vermont Public Radio that binding arbitration would be a better way to resolve contract disputes.

The Vermont-NEA, which represents 12,000 educators, has been willing to give up the right to strike if school boards would also lose their right to impose working conditions on teachers – but Shumlin's timing was inappropriate, union president Martha Allen wrote in a letter to Shumlin on Wednesday.

"Our teachers were demoralized when they heard your words," Allen wrote. "They were striking as a last resort and truly wanted to continue to negotiate, but the school board was not willing to continue at that time. You may be supportive of the collective bargaining process, but it appeared otherwise to our teachers and the general public."

RELATED: South Burlington ties up teachers contract

Shumlin wants to outlaw teacher strikes

Allen added that in return, teachers have been questioning the union's support for Shumlin.

"Our members are wondering why, when Vermont-NEA has recommended your reelection, we are still supporting you financially and otherwise," Allen wrote. "They are asking us if you really do respect the profession and our union."

Teachers felt that Gov. Shumlin was blaming them for the pain in South Burlington, said Darren Allen, spokesman for the Vermont-NEA.

"He did not, at one time during the strike, call on the school boards to stay at the table until the job was done," Darren Allen said. "That's where the rub was, and is."

When asked for a response to the union's letter, Gov. Shumlin said the South Burlington strike was the right time to raise the issue of binding arbitration.

"No one wins with a strike, not students, not teachers, not board members, not taxpayers," Shumlin said. "While I don't take sides in these situations, I believe a strike is a good time to remind people that there are other ways for us to accomplish the same goals without negatively impacting our students."

Martha Allen, the Vermont-NEA president, has asked to meet with the governor before Election Day, which is less than two weeks away. No meeting has been scheduled yet, according the governor's office.

The most recent poll by Castleton Polling Institute, commissioned by WCAX-TV, showed Shumlin with support from 47 percent of voters, leading Republican challenger Scott Milne, who had 35 percent, and Libertarian challenger Dan Feliciano, who had six percent.

The Vermont School Boards Association has resisted binding arbitration. Martha Allen argued in the letter that school boards want to keep the ability to "impose working conditions on teachers."

Steve Dale, executive director of the Vermont School Boards Association, said binding arbitration is simply not the best option available.

"We are opposed to teachers strikes," said Steve Dale, executive director of the Vermont School Boards Association. "We are also not in favor of binding arbitration as the solution."

In a system of binding arbitration, both sides would submit a contract proposal to an independent arbiter, then live with the results.

Dale argues that binding arbitration has downsides: It tends to discourage "forward-thinking" contract proposals that might be necessary, for example, given current "volatility" around health care plans. He also disagrees with the idea of placing those major contract decisions in the hands of an independent, non-elected person.

"There are many states that do not allow strikes that have alternative expectations about what happens when there is not a resolution, and we ought to be looking at what those options are because strikes are so distasteful for everybody," Dale said.

Teachers have had the right to strike in Vermont for more than 40 years. The South Burlington teachers strike lasted five days and was the 26th in state history. Teachers strikes are illegal in many states.

History of Vermont teachers strikes:

• 1978: Champlain Valley Union High School Teachers Association, less than one week
• 1978: Burlington Education Association, one week
• 1979: Chester Education Association, two weeks
• 1979: Rutland Education Association, nine days
• 1980: Burke Unit of the Caledonia North Teachers Association, one day
• 1984: Poultney Teachers Association, less than one week
• 1985: Hinesburg Unit of the Chittenden South Education Association, 87 days
• 1985: Colchester Education Association, less than two weeks
• 1987: Addison Northwest Teachers Association, about one week
• 1989: Barre Education Association, about one week
• 1989: Winooski Education Association, three days
• 1989: North Country Union Education Association, about one week
• 1989-1990: Addison Northwest Teachers Association, about one month
• 1990: Fair Haven Graded School Teachers Association, two days
• 1990: Georgia Teachers Education Association, five days
• 1990: Windham Northeast Education Association, about one week
• 1992: Southwest Vermont Education Association, about one week
• 1993: Oxbow Teachers Association, about one week
• 1999: Hyde Park Teachers and ESP Unit / Lamoille North EA, about one week
• 2005: Orleans Central Education Association, four days
• 2005: Colchester Education Association
• 2005: Barre Education Association
• 2006: Green Mountain NEA
• 2011: Southwestern Vermont Education Association, three weeks
• 2012: Rutland Southwest Supervisory Union, nine days
• 2014: South Burlington Educators Association, five days

(Source: Vermont-NEA)

Contact April Burbank at (802) 660-1863 or aburbank@freepressmedia.com. Follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/AprilBurbank