Photo by Andy Milone South Orange-Maplewood Education Association members march from South Orange Middle School to the administration building to express their displeasure with labor negotiations.
By Andy Milone
Correspondent
Intense labor negotiations remain unsettled in the South Orange-Maplewood School District.
The Education Association, representing some 700 teachers, support staff and maintenance workers from 10 schools, filed Sept. 23 with the Public Employment Relations Commission for an impasse after months of talks resulted in a failure to come to terms with the Board of Education on a new collective bargaining contract.
To further express their displeasure, dozens of those association members marched a little more than a mile at 6 p.m. Thursday, a school night, from South Orange Middle School to the Administration Building, chanting, carrying signs and wearing turquoise union shirts,
while soliciting honks and cheers from passersby.
The labor agreement outlines a number of terms related to public employment but what gets the most attention is the annual pay raises.
Communication from both sides suggest the union was willing to consider 6%, 4%, and 4% raises each of the next three school years, 2024-25, 2025-26, and 2026-27. The board had offered 3.7%, 3.25% and 3.25%.
“More than praise, we deserve a raise,” the protestors said repeatedly during their march. Other common utterances rang out: “We want fair pay; we deserved it yesterday” and “SOMEA is united. We’ll never be divided.”
The impasse filing means the two sides are likely headed to an outside mediator, according to the union.
Compensation has been frozen since the last three-year contract expired June 30, meaning employees haven’t received a pay bump, even if they hit a length of service milestone, known as a step, or met another marker, for instance, by graduating with a higher degree.
“We have over 700 of us with families. Some of us work two jobs. Prices are not going down and taxes never seem to go down,” said Josue Martinez, an elementary school teacher who often was leading the chants. “All we’re doing is trying to make enough to live.”
The union halted traffic and attracted, in some cases, people’s attention mid-bite in restaurants. Commuters were getting off at the South Orange Train Station and people were patronizing Sadie’s Fashion Show in Spiotta Park as members continued on by.
Marchers, and their families, spent most of their time on West South Orange Avenue and Valley Street, and gradually spread out, before reaching the Administration Building on Academy Street.
“It’s the people you see here. This, the real talent,” said Jeff Boni, a high school teacher among the marchers, during a stretch when administration is “a revolving door.”
“Two years in, two years out, yet the schools maintain their high ranking, and it’s the people here.”
They chanted from outside the Administration Building before making their way inside to an empty meeting room because the board was in closed session. Energy remained strong as they waited around in advance of addressing the board with the support of some students who spoke out in favor of their mentors.
Board members did not file back in until after 7:30 p.m. but that did not stop the late-night remarks and exchanges from becoming poignant.
“After 23 years, I’m finally fed up with the level of hypocrisy, lies, mistreatment and abuse we’ve received,” said Rocio Lopez, a high school teacher and union president, to start off a lengthy statement.
She said the board has not worked in “good faith” to come up with a “fair solution,” rather “communication has been used as fear to divide the community and pit residents against teachers.”
Superintendent Jason Bing has only been in charge since June 20 but has been the spokesperson for the board. He is “pretty positive” the union and board could meet again to bargain further and come to a resolution.
“We’re all for healthy competitive increases. Plain and simple,” Bing told the union members.
“You guys have a good group on your side. We have a good group on our side. Let’s get back to the table and work it out,” he added.
Bing also hinted at rising tensions.
“How are we going to change that narrative?” while noting he’s “tired of being the butt of jokes” to which he clarified afterwards that the “narrative” has to do with challenges relaying “positive PR” in general when all the focus tends to be on the negative.
No future bargaining sessions have been scheduled.
Originally, one had been scheduled for Oct. 8, but Lori Martling, a high school teacher and the union’s legal writer, said the union never received another proposal, yet alone one she believed demonstrated the counterpart was “willing to negotiate in good faith.”
The two sides had been bargaining since February, she said.
Tension is not unfamiliar territory as the union and board have been through impasses on and off in the past, though the last one came before the recently expired three-year contract, according to Martling.
“I believe our community is tired of turning every issue into a crisis,” said Board President Qawi Telesford during the Thursday meeting.
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