A member of the negotiating team trying to reach a new contract agreement for unionized teachers says time is running out to reach a deal. That comment was made the day after the chief negotiator for the V.I. government curtailed scheduled contract talks on Friday.
The presidents of American Federation of Teachers Locals 1825 and 1826 issued a joint statement late Friday accusing the government of bad faith bargaining. Union Presidents Rosa Soto-Thomas and Carol Callwood said they came to the St. Croix meeting ready to talk and that stance has not changed.
“We came to the table ready to bargain. We remain ready to resume talks whenever the government comes to its senses and realizes this tactic serves no one; not our citizens, not educators and most of all not our students,” said Callwood, president of Local 1825.
Local 1825 represents teachers, paraprofessionals and some school staff members in the St. Thomas-St. John district. Local 1826 represents AFT members in the district of St. Croix.
As Callwood described Friday’s discussion, Chief Negotiator Natalie Tang How accused union officials of directing teachers at St. Croix Educational Complex to walk off the job that day. In an interview given by phone Saturday, Callwood denied the charge.
After that, Thomas and Callwood said, Tang How left the meeting room.
“Those present said Tang How simply declared there was nothing more to discuss and then directed her staff to escort the union negotiators out the back door,” the Friday statement said.
That action was followed by a statement from Tang How accusing the AFT of violating the terms of their contract. Negotiators now have until Sept. 30 to reach a contract agreement before the current contract expires. Salary increases and issues of working conditions remain unresolved.
Soto-Thomas said protests by St. Croix teachers were brought on by “deplorable conditions in many of their school buildings.”
“Like our educators, I am fed up with the government’s lack of action to correct the unsafe and unhealthy conditions in our schools,” Soto-Thomas said. “However, neither our union nor any of our leaders have called for or encouraged recent picketing by some teachers. These actions are not sanctioned by our union. Indeed, we have urged all educators to report for work as scheduled.”
Inadequate conditions at public schools can be seen territory wide, Callwood said. In her district, teachers from Addelita Cancryn Junior High School are reporting for work at Charlotte Amalie High School where they have been since the school was placed on double session last year.
But Cancryn teachers are taking seats daily in the CAHS Library, waiting for completion of modular classrooms on the high school campus.
On St. Croix, students, faculty and staff of the Arthur Richards Junior High School also are waiting for relocation to temporary classrooms. Presently, Callwood said, classes for Richards Junior High are being conducted in rooms shared by students and teachers from the John H. Woodson Junior High School.
At the same place, at the same time, with teachers providing instruction in tandem, the union leader said.
In other St. Croix classrooms, modular classrooms were ready for the new school year but desk, chairs and instructional materials were not.
Students in one St. Croix school were able to take seats in class after a local church donated chairs, Callwood said.
The Local 1825 president said the unions acknowledge the amount of progress made in the aftermath of Hurricanes Irma and Maria to reopen schools. But as the 2018-2019 school year begins, Callwood said, further progress seems lacking.
“We are very cognizant of the fact that we did a good recovery from the storms. The problem is that we are in the same position now that we were,” she said.