Union, schools mull talks

By Bill Donovan
Staff writer

GALLUP — On Nov. 19, the county public school board is going to do something it hasn’t done this century — have a serious conversation about unions and collective bargaining.

It has been more than 12 years since the McKinley County Federation of United School Employees has had a collective bargaining agreement with the county school system, ever since Gary Johnson came in as governor and removed unions from state government agencies.

When he was replaced five years ago by Bill Richardson, unions came back into power, and almost all of the unions that were in power when Johnson came in are back. One of the few exceptions is McFUSE which has been trying without success to get the Gallup-McKinley County School Board to talk about a union contract.

During the administration of Karen White, a former union member, the school board refused to consider McFUSE’s entreaties until they had a vote of the teachers to see if the teachers wanted McFUSE as their union representatives. But union officials objected, pointing out that the law stated that unions in power when Johnson took office would be allowed back in without a vote.

That is where it stood until a new school board was elected in February and once again, the school board and the union seemed to be on the same track.

Geneieve Jackson, chairman of the school board, said Sunday that when the matter comes before the school board, all facets of the union and collective bargaining will be discussed.

That includes the idea of fair share, a concept that some on the school board have indicated they are not happy about.

Fair share means simply that non-members of the union would also have to pay a fee less than union dues for the work the union does on their behalf.

“First and foremost,” said Brian Bernard, McFUSE’s president, it’s “not a mandatory scope of bargaining.”

He said that it must be agreed upon by both parties just to be negotiated. Either party can refuse to negotiate it. “Therefore, it can be removed from the negotiating table at either party’s discretion or whim,” he said.

“Secondly, since its inception in 1975, McFUSE has never advocated for Fair Share and does not foresee considering it in the future,” he said.

The fair share concept has been mentioned, he said, by “anti-unionists of past administrations and hangers-on who use this as a scare tactic to diminish union ranks.”

“These union bashers do not want to see McFUSE succeed in giving education employees a voice in the district, let alone in the classroom.”