Our contract for certified educators expires June 2020 and we have agreed to exchange proposals with PPS starting in January. Your Bargaining Committee is meeting on September 18th to finalize our 1st bargaining survey. It will be electronic and you can expect to receive it by the end of September. Please take the time to make sure your voice is heard.
As a democratic union, it’s a goal and core value of the PAT that we have input from our full membership regarding our bargaining priorities. Your Bargaining Team needs this input in order to properly advocate for everyone. To achieve that goal, our PAT Bylaws call for a Bargaining Team and a Bargaining Committee.
The Bargaining Team
The Bargaining Team is the group of members who actually negotiate our contract with the District. They commit to fully participating in every part of the bargaining process, including all-day (and sometimes all-night) sessions, for as long as it takes to reach an agreement.
The Bargaining Team receives feedback from bargaining surveys and the Bargaining Committee, writes and tracks our proposals, and meets with the District during negotiations. Their commitment is to winning the strongest contract they can for the entire membership.
Our Bargaining Team has not yet been selected. However, Steve Lancaster, a teacher at Lincoln High School, will continue as Bargaining Chair. And John Berkey, OEA consultant assigned to PAT, will be our chief negotiator, replacing Marty Pavlik who has retired.
Determining the size of the team, as well as negotiating ground rules, is one of the first steps we will take once we begin bargaining with PPS. As per bylaws: The president shall appoint the members … of the collective bargaining teams; these appointments shall be subject to the approval of the Executive Board.
The Bargaining Committee
Our Bargaining Committee is much larger than our Bargaining Team, and allows for broad representation. The Bargaining Committee will help compile survey results, research possible contract proposals, and generally provide subject matter expertise to the Bargaining Team.
Currently our Bargaining Committee includes educators with expertise from the following areas: Alternative Ed; Art/ Music; Counselor; DLI; Elementary classroom; ELL; High school classroom; Librarian; Middle school classroom; School Psych; SLP; SMS/Climate; Social Worker; SpEd; SpEd Focus program; and Wilcox.
If you do not see your job type listed and are interested in joining the Bargaining Committee, please email PAT President Suzanne Cohen at [email protected]. We are especially interested in PE and Health Educators as well as TOSAs.
From our bylaws: The Bargaining Committee shall assist the collective bargaining teams in research and the development of the Association’s proposals under guidelines established by the Executive Board.