Running head: COLLECTIVE BARGAINING AND CONTRACT ANALYSIS 1

Collective Bargaining and Contract Analysis:

Grand Blanc Education Association Contract Process Review

Jeremy Mitchell

Oakland University

Rodney Green, Ph.D.

Education Law EA742

August 6, 2017
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Introduction

The state of Michigan is rich in history with regard to labor unions. While unionization

was born out of Industrialization in Europe and the United States in the 19th and 20th centuries,

groups like the United Auto Workers who organized events like the Flint sit-down strike, have

forever earned Michigan it’s place in the bedrock of history for labor unions of all sectors.

Eventually, legislation like the National Labor Relations Act of 1935 (Wagner Act) would give

greater legal protections to the organization and bargaining rights of unions. Eventually the

pendulum would swing back and put some union power in check with the passage of the Labor

Management Relations Act of 1947 (the Taft-Hartley Act) which would then trickle to public

employees in Michigan via the Michigan Public Employment Relations Act of 1947. While the

intent of the this legislation was to bar public employees, especially teachers, from striking, it did

however give them the right to collectively bargain for the first time. The paradigm is much

different now with Michigan becoming a “right to work” state under Governor Rick Snyder, but

to this day school employees collectively bargain and negotiate their contracts with their local

school board and administration.

Grand Blanc Community Schools Contract and Negotiation Procedures

Grand Blanc Community Schools’ bargaining unit contracts, with the teachers being the

largest, are mutually agreed upon terms of employment and working conditions. The units

negotiate these contracts with central office administration, but they are technically agreements

made between the unit and the school board. Grand Blanc teachers are organized as the Grand

Blanc Education Association (GBEA), which falls under the Michigan and National Education

Association. The power to organize and collectively bargain via Act 379 of the Public Acts of
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1965 is cited in the most recent contract. Additionally, Grand Blanc has traditionally negotiated

three year contracts. As the ending of a contract approaches, each side begins to form teams and

begin the negotiations process.

Both the administration and the union leadership in Grand Blanc are publicly and

informally proud of the solid positive relationship and mutual respect maintained between each

other. Grand Blanc students perform at the top of the county in an overwhelming majority of

academic areas. Staff are positively viewed by the board and the administration, and

administrators are seen and treated as respected leaders. Because of the longstanding

relationship both sides have been able to peacefully and faithfully compromise on sticking points

in order to do what’s best for students and employees.

In the most recent bargaining negotiations the largest point of contention has been that

teachers have been frozen from advancing in pay steps for the last six years. The most recent

contract, however, turned steps back on, but even that was settled almost nine months past when

it should have been ratified. The budget crunch that all schools have faced, mixed with the

conservative financial leanings of the Grand Blanc school board was the reason for the pay

freeze. Now that teachers in year 1-12 of service can receive advancement steps in pay, the

current and most prevalent negotiating point will be the cost of health care premiums. In the last

five years, Grand Blanc employees have gone from paying a low deductible that was once

reimbursed annually by the district, to a high deductible without any reimbursement.

While the health care changes are issues on the horizon, being able to regrant step

movement was a very big win for the union in the last contract. GBEA leadership had made it

their number one priority to do something to retain younger teachers who were seeing no pay
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advancement at all. Many of these young teachers were leaving the profession or moving to

other districts feeling like there was no future for them in Grand Blanc. With no requirement to

pay union dues anymore, many of these young people were deciding not to contribute to a union

they felt was underrepresenting them, so the EA knew they needed to make these teachers a

priority. The Deputy Superintendent made mention that giving the teachers a small raise and

turning steps back on was also a priority of the administration and the school board. They did

not want to keep bleeding good young talent either. However, finding the 1.2 million dollars

annually to do it was a challenge. It was ultimately achieved through small layoffs alleviated by

natural attrition and then strategic increased privatization in maintenance and grounds costs.

To better understand the how negotiations have played out historically in Grand Blanc,

the deputy superintendent who serves as the personnel director, Dr. Trevor Alward, was

interviewed. He said that as the steps have been reinstated, the greatest sticking point in

negotiating contracts is the health care changes. Throughout the negotiations process, the admin

team will assign weight, or a dollar cost to everything, whether is a furlough day, vacation day,

or healthcare change so that every bargaining chip can be valued in order to stay aligned to the

budget figure the district needs to stay within.

With regard to the health care, he said that many of the changes have been unknown or

are confusing to employees. For example, he made mention of the hard caps like the 80/20 rule,

where the employee must pay 20% of the healthcare premium increases. The tough thing for

both district and employee is that costs have gone up 50% in the last five years, and nearly 150%

in the last ten years. With funding rarely increasing, and costs like this going up constantly, and
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now the ending of the public school employees pension system for new employees, there is a

dramatic worry that they won’t be able to attract and pay quality individuals.

When asked about negotiations processes and lessons learned, Dr. Alward made mention

that for each side the process is all about strategy, relationships, and listening. If you are not

attuned to what the other side is actually after it can make the process long and drawn out.

Unfortunately, you have to sometimes start far apart because of the nature of how the collective

bargaining process is set. Bargaining in good faith means you try to compromise, and part of the

process is that you can’t recessively bargain, or move backwards, if you feel the other side has

started to far apart and you cannot reasonably meet in the middle of where you each started.

One of the mistakes Dr. Alward said he almost made was not paying attention to different

deals made with different bargaining units and how decisions made in negotiations with one

group can have implications with others. He said that one frustration lately has been the

involvement of the UniServ director from the MEA. She has been involved in more

negotiations, and intentionally trying to remove internal hard caps on insurance in smaller

contracts. Dr. Alward said she is trying to set a precedent to have them removed from larger

bargaining units like the teachers when they have to settle a contract again in 2018. He said that

having a calm and patient negotiating team has allowed them to realize that you have to think

about the whole employee body when making contract decisions with any group.

A piece of advice shared by Dr. Alward within the process has been that of sidebar

negotiating. This is where sides informally propose potential options to that might help move the

teams closer to an agreement. These are merely verbal brainstorms that help come up with

creative solutions. They also help gauge whether or not an idea would be acceptable. Also,
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having the district’s retained lawyer and the business manager in the room help to ensure you

aren’t overlooking something you have offered or been offered. Once a proposed idea seems to

be acceptable, it must be included in a written proposal to be given to the other side to review

and clarify any confusion that the wording matches the intent and spirit of the offer.

Conclusion

Collective bargaining has it’s pros and cons. While the process may seem inefficient and

frustrating to an outsider, there are many positives to settling a contract with the group as a

whole. Instead of bargaining salary and benefits with every single employee, you save time and

promote fairness by everyone understanding where they stand. On the flip side, this can create

resentment in younger workers who don’t earn as much, but may feel their performance warrants

greater pay or advancement over an employee who has been there longer. With Michigan

becoming a “right to work” state in the last few years, the jury is still out regarding the future of

collective bargaining or unions in general. Ultimately though, maintaining positive relationships

in the workplace in order to promote culture is always a priority, no matter the industry.
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References

Grand Blanc Community Schools, Master Contract, August 2015