Orange Trustees Quit Talks Too Soon, Union Says

Officials with the Orange teachers union Wednesday said they will file an unfair labor practices charge against the school district for unilaterally imposing a contract on the union the night before, and will seek a court ruling to prevent the contract from going into effect.

After months of rocky contract talks, the Orange Unified School District on Tuesday unilaterally imposed a salary and benefits plan that includes an 8% raise for this school year. The California Teachers Assn. has described the negotiations at Orange as among the most contentious in the state.

Trustees said contract talks were hopelessly deadlocked and the standoff was hindering hiring efforts. They added that they were still open to continuing talks so the two sides could craft a mutually endorsed pact.

The union’s stance is that the district gave up on negotiations too soon, said Bill Shanahan, executive director of the Orange Unified Education Assn. The union has blasted the district’s salary and benefits package as inadequate to recruit and retain skilled teachers in the 31,000-student district.

“Had we stayed at the bargaining table, we most probably would have been able to reach an agreement,” Shanahan said. “The implementation was unilateral, and negotiations take two parties.”

The district’s lawyer, James Bowles, responded that the union’s allegations are meritless.

“For them to want to delay wage increases for the teachers,” he said, “while [the union bargainers] continue to negotiate with unrealistic salary proposals that are millions of dollars away from what the school district can reasonably afford is irresponsible.”

Orange school officials have described their pact as a “major concession” to teachers because it retreats from previous demands to buy out instructors’ cherished lifetime medical benefits.

The district’s offer--approved on a 5-0 vote Tuesday, with two trustees absent--would retroactively pay entry-level teachers $32,975 and the most senior educators $56,560 this school year. The union’s last proposal would have included more substantial raises for veteran teachers, with salaries ranging from $32,000 at entry level to a maximum of $63,980.

Negotiations have been stalled since May.

Shanahan said the union plans to file charges with the Public Employment Relations Board on Friday or Monday. If the board rules in favor of the union on this latest issue, it could seek a court injunction against the district on the teachers’ behalf.

Both sides have questioned the other’s budget figures.

“The problem is, they won’t give us what they budgeted,” said union president John Rossmann.

After Tuesday night’s board meeting, trustee Martin Jacobson disagreed. “I think what most teachers want is a fair wage. I think what we’ve offered is a fair deal.”

It is sometimes legal to impose a contract unilaterally if school districts and their unions have exhausted avenues of resolution, said Ronald Wenkart, general counsel for the Orange County Department of Education.