POLICY HIGHLIGHTER

Volume 13, Number 31
December 8, 2003

Is Binding Arbitration the answer to teacher strikes?

All parties involved in teacher pay issues, except for the teachers’ union, understand that teacher strikes are not permitted in the state of Washington. They know that the Public Employee Relations Commission (PERC) already provides a process for negotiating parties to follow if an impasse is reached: mediation is offered and, if requested, fact-finding can be ordered. If either party is acting in bad faith, a complaint can be filed and PERC is authorized to take appropriate action.

But strikes occur anyway, and they will continue without some type of legislative action. Binding arbitration, which is being considered by the legislature as a solution for teacher strikes, is not a solution. Here’s why.

• Arbitrators are not required to consider a school district’s financial position when making decisions, nor must they consider the quality of education received by students for the dollars invested. School districts, on the other hand, are required by law to make both of these evaluations.
  
  
• Contract agreements with teachers usually affect other district employees, such as classified staff, but the arbitrator has neither the authority nor the responsibility to examine the impact. But the district must look at the financial and professional ripple effect.
  
  
• Arbitration discourages honest, good-faith collective bargaining by the teachers’ union because nearly all the risk is on management. We are unable to locate a case where an arbitrator has awarded a public-sector union less than what a school board had already offered. This provides incentive for a union to reject the board’s offers, since they will likely win more with an arbitrator.
  
  
• The arbitrator does not have to take responsibility for the actual results of his or her decision. This runs contrary to the principles of sound public administration.
  
  
• School districts, unlike other units of government, have little flexibility when it comes to raising revenue. They cannot raise taxes above the levy lid, and levies are set 2-3 years in advance. School boards do not have other funding sources with which to satisfy an arbitrator’s decision, unless they cut educational program monies.

PERC reports that 10 percent of current negotiations with police and firefighters are stuck in binding arbitration, likely due to recession-driven revenue constrictions faced by counties and cities. School districts have greater revenue restrictions, and if teachers are offered the binding arbitration option, and the percentage of agreements that remain unsettled are similar to those of the police and firefighters unions, up to 30 of our state’s 296 local school districts could be locked in binding arbitration.

We recommend several considerations:

• Forget binding arbitration for teachers. Instead force teachers and districts to follow the procedure already established under PERC. Insist that the attorney general’s office step in immediately should a strike be called, or if PERC determines one or the other parties will not negotiate in good faith.
  
  
• Mandate that all teacher contracts (master and individual) must be approved by June 30 of each negotiating year. Failure to do this would result in a fall back to the previous year’s contract minus the statutorily restricted one-year supplemental contracts. If the fault for failure to ratify the new contract is a result of bad faith negotiation by the district, PERC sanctions/remedies would immediately apply.

Prepared by Bob Williams | President

Contact: Jason Mercier | Budget Researsh Analyst | 360.956.3482

Evergreen Freedom Foundation P.O. Box 552, Olympia, WA 98507 Phone: (360) 956-3482, Fax: (360) 352-1874 Email: effwa@effwa.org