Students Hold Contract Talks
Posted on: Friday, 16 May 2008, 03:00 CDT
By Jason Pesick
RIALTO - High-stakes labor talks were held Thursday at Carter High School.
But they were not between representatives from the Rialto Unified School District and Rialto Education Association, the teachers union.
Instead, the negotiations were part of the school district's fifth annual Collective Bargaining Institute, which teaches students about the collective-bargaining process.
About 65 middle- and high-school students participated in the daylong event organized by school board President Dan Mays, a business representative of the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 12, and Kent Taylor, director of secondary curriculum.
Everything was a make-believe case study, starting with teaching some students how to negotiate a labor pact with management. Other students played the role of white-collar employees.
In this fictional world, the students formed a union, called Solidarity Workers Union, to reach a labor pact with an unreal hospital, called Getwell Hospital.
The goal: work out a one-year contract and avert a strike if terms weren't met.
"We can't just go out and throw out our money," said Omar Munoz, management representative and Carter High senior, about conditions he wanted to put on a tuition-reimbursement plan for employees.
"It's the most powerful teaching strategy," said Linda Tubach, Los Angeles Unified School District teacher and United Teachers Los Angeles member, of the role playing.
She helped facilitate the event with union representatives.
Meanwhile, in the "real world," the Rialto school district is having labor troubles of its own. It is unable to reach a contract for the current or upcoming school years with its teachers union. Three-hundred teachers have been warned they might not have jobs next year because of budget problems.
The purpose of Thursday's event was to teach students about management and labor issues, as well as how to work in groups and present information, Taylor said.
Union members wanted at least a 6 percent raise to their $15-an- hour salary, safer-working conditions and a fairer promotions system. Management wanted smaller salary hikes as well as workers contributing to their health insurance.
Mays said he likes that students learn about what happens in the "real world."
"It's also a great training method in alternative conflict resolution," he said.
(c) 2008 The Sun, San Bernardino, Calif.. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.
Source: The Sun, San Bernardino, Calif.
User Comments (0)
RSS Feeds