New bill prevents contract imposition By josh davidson Staff Writer MIDDLETOWN — A bill slated to change the future of contract negotiations for teachers throughout the state has been signed by Gov. James McGreevey. Bill 2398, signed by McGreevey on July 10, will prohibit contract imposition by any Board of Education throughout the state during teacher contract negotiations. The bill was passed by the state Assembly and Senate on June 23. "[July 10] is a red letter day for school board employees in the state," Middletown Education Association President Diane Swaim said. The bill prohibits any school official from imposing, modifying, amending, deleting or altering any terms or conditions of a teacher’s employment without specific agreement from the teacher’s union representative. The law will encourage teachers to go through the fact-finding mediation process during negotiations, according to Swaim. In the past, fact-finding was avoided by school boards that could impose contracts during that process, she said. The fact-finding process was useful during Middletown’s last teachers’ strike in December 2001. At that time, 228 union members were jailed after violating a state Superior Court judge’s return-to-work order, she said. That strike lasted seven days. State mediator Ronald J. Riccio used the fact-finding process during negotiations. "He spent several weeks talking with anybody looking at the figures and he recommended a settlement," Swaim said. That strike "lit a fire" in the state to prevent a reoccurrence, Swaim said. "We obviously are strong supporters of the bill," said Steve Baker, associate director of public relations for the New Jersey Education Association. "We feel it will be a real step forward in the collective bargaining process." The state Assembly passed the bill by a 70-10 vote, and the Senate voted 36-1 to allow the bill, according to the Middletown Education Association’s newsletter. "That’s a resounding message — no more Middletowns," Swaim said. The MTEA has referred to the new bill as the "Middletown bill" in its press releases. "The vote was extraordinarily strong in both the Assembly and Senate," Baker said. "I believe a lot of people recognize the value of this bill for maintaining valuable labor relations in New Jersey." Before this bill was passed, school boards could impose the final contract offer made to a teachers’ union before negotiations stalled, Baker said. Teachers’ negotiations teams were left without options, he said. The bill will allow teachers’ unions to finish the negotiation process "rather than short-circuiting [negotiations] and leaving the negotiations team with no further options," Baker said. It’s hard to say how the bill will affect the Middletown school district, Baker said. "We hope that it will have a positive impact in all the districts," he said. The Middletown board imposed a contract on the teachers’ union in September 1998 when the union went out on a four-day strike, said Joan Minnuies, a school board member. A cleaner negotiations process will benefit all members of the state’s school districts, Baker said. N. Britt Raynor, a Middletown school board member, said he expected the bill to pass both houses because the New Jersey Education Association is too strong for legislators to fight. The bill prevents the board and teachers from working together to come to a contract agreement, he added. "It just weakens the ability of any Board of Education within the state to have the wherewithal to get the job done," he said. "It’s almost as if the school districts are becoming a product of the teachers’ unions. Really what it should be is a product of the two sides working together, and in most communities that’s the case." During the collective bargaining process, this bill could prevent closure, Raynor said. "This is a seldom-used piece of legislation," he said. "I don’t think it’s going to have any real impact on any school district." In the long run, preventing closure in the negotiations process hurts everyone, including the teachers’ union, Raynor said. "It’s not good for the morale of the teachers, students and community," he said. "[Closure] puts a light at the end of the tunnel and unfortunately that light has been put out," Raynor said. The teachers’ union wrote numerous letters to legislators over the last two years dealing with the issue, Swaim said. The bill makes school boards and teachers equal during the collective bargaining process, she added.