The Española School District and its employee union declared an impasse Jan. 22 after negotiations broke down over the last two of more than 30 items in a contract for teachers, Charles Goodmacher, the union’s representative with the New Mexico Education Association, a statewide employee union, confirmed.
Impasse is reached when both bargaining teams — the union and District administration — are unable to agree on one or more issues, and neither is willing to compromise any further. The next step is to hire a mediator from the federal Mediation and Conciliation Service through the state labor board, according to state labor laws.
Mediation sessions are set to begin Feb. 12.
The two parties reached a stalemate over what John Martinez, head of Management Associates, an Albuquerque firm Superintendent David Cockerham and the School Board hired as their lead negotiator, described as “both parties’ rights” and “the money issue.”
More specifically, the two parties disagreed over teachers’ stipends and over “union rights” — for example, whether the union can use District property to organize — Goodmacher said.
Goodmacher did not blame Martinez for the impasse. Martinez’s is a known union-buster, who is so reviled in some union circles that the city of Española has promised its employees union it would never hire him again.
The District has paid $68,781 to the controversial firm since Superintendent David Cockerham and the Española School Board hired it to represent the District in contract negotiations with the union in October 2007, according to checks and invoices.
What the District has spent so far on the consultant amounts to a $1,000 raise for each of the District’s cooks and custodians.
Cockerham stood by his decision to hire Martinez, saying District administrators have no experience negotiating and this initial contract will be the basis for future negotiated contracts. He insisted bringing in Management Associates was “not an adversarial move.”
As for the impasse, Assistant Superintendent Dorothy Sanchez declined to comment and Cockerham said he “hadn’t heard” about the impasse.
Martinez and union representatives both said they were optimistic about the mediation.
“I actually think reaching an impasse is a good thing,” union president Brian Every said. “We’ve reached a point where we’re getting resolution on these issues, instead of both sides getting stonewalled.”
Martinez said the mediator has no power to impose a decision on the two parties, but is there to encourage a resolution.
“His job is to try to bring us together,” Martinez said. “We meet separately with him, we meet together, to try to work out our differences.”
If the District and union do not reach an agreement after a month of mediation, state law calls for the two sides to jointly appoint an arbitrator, who would resolve the conflict by choosing one of the two parties’ best, final offer. The arbitrator’s ruling is final and binding, and the District and the union must share the cost of hiring the mediator and arbitrator, according to state law.
After the impasse is resolved, the District’s certified staff — teachers and other employees required to have licenses from the state Education Department — will have a working contract. After that, the two parties still need to negotiate most of the contract for the District’s support staff, which includes secretaries, cooks and custodians.
Goodmacher said the second contract will be easier to negotiate, because it will borrow from the finalized contract for teachers.
The impasse came late in a school board election in which both candidates have made comments strongly in favor of the union.
Joe “Coco” Archuleta, who is running unopposed to replace Board President Joe Romero, has called for the District to dismiss Management Associates and for administrators to conduct negotiations themselves.
“My preference would be to have a local team, with Board members, I guess and administrators,” Archuleta said. “We can probably work something out, all the parties involved know each other. This guy who was hired, from what I hear, my understanding is he’s more of a union-buster than a negotiator.”
Board Vice President Floyd Archuleta, who is running unopposed to keep his seat, did not return calls for comment.
Long Road
The union won its collective bargaining rights by vote in September 2007. Roughly 86 percent of eligible District employees cast votes, and more than 90 percent of them voted in favor of the union. The union represents all District employees except administrators, and about 220 District employees are enrolled in the union, Every said.
Every said he is at once skeptical and optimistic of Board candidates’ favorable comments toward the union.
“When the School Board was running for election two years ago, all of them made favorable comments,” Every said. “And I wasn’t impressed with behavior after that. But I’m optimistic to see whether indeed a change is occurring in our relationship, and I hope that our Board members who are running for election now will be feel that way after they’re elected and sworn in.”
The union has been negotiating separate contracts for teachers and support staff since December 2007.
“What the union is doing is what they should do, and I respect that,” Cockerham said. “But we have to watch out for the kids. That’s the first thing we always ask, ‘Is it going to be good for the kids?’”