ACTION ALERT: Tell legislators you OPPOSE SB 302 which creates at-will teachers
01/15/2015
ACTION: ISTA asks that you contact your senator and the members of the Senate Pensions and Labor Committee to urge that this bill not move forward.
Yesterday, the Senate Pensions and Labor Committee heard SB 302 (Sen. Pete Miller, R-Avon) which will allow non-union teachers to negotiate their own contracts with their employers separate from the collectively bargained contract--so long as the non-union teacher agrees to waive their due process rights becoming, in effect, an “at-will” employee.
According to Sen. Miller, his bill intends to enable school districts to pay some in-demand teachers more.
ISTA testified in opposition to this bill on the basis that it creates an array of questions and legal problems. Among the few are:
- Nobody has asked for this dramatic change. This is a solution in search of a problem.
- Who gets to bargain first? The exclusive representative or these individual teachers?
- This bill allows the employer to force different, individual contracts on non-union teachers.
- Student learning would suffer due to administrators negotiating potentially hundreds of individual contracts, as well as honoring contracts with teachers under the union.
Tell your story:
- The current system of collective bargaining works—that your union is both your union and your professional association and that collective bargaining is a helpful tool and strategy that ultimately fosters a healthy balance among all interests.
- No compelling set of reasons were offered to justify this bill.