Bargaining moves at slowest pace in two decades as Minnesota educators get bold

Members of the Burnsville Education Association held informational picketing before the March 14 school board meeting.

Union educators in Lakeville earlier this month voted down their district’s best contract offer 99% to 1%. Days later in Burnsville, hundreds of educators lined the street outside the district’s offices to demand administrators do better at the bargaining table.

Educators in the east metro and across Minnesota are being bold in their contract demands during this bargaining cycle, sticking together for compensation gains that, union members say, are overdue after years of underfunding – and key to addressing a teacher shortage.

“Every teacher in the Lakeville district is making less money in real terms than they were 10 years ago, even with raises for additional experience,” Johannah Surma, lead negotiator for Education Minnesota Lakeville, said. “Our pay just hasn’t kept up with inflation.”

Union members don’t expect to catch up in one contract, but their “no” vote, Surma said, sent a strong message that it will take more than the district’s last offer – a 1% raise in the first year and 5% in the second – to get them to settle.

Lakeville isn’t the only district where educators are holding out for more this year, following a record $2.2 billion state funding increase for public education. As of earlier this month, roughly 71% of Education Minnesota-affiliated local unions had settled their contracts.

“That is the slowest number in the last 20 years,” Education Minnesota Vice President Monica Byron said. “But that shows the hard work that all the locals across this state have been doing because they deserve it. We are all worth more.”

Already this school year, educators in large school districts like St. Paul, Anoka-Hennepin and St. Francis have voted to authorize strikes, although all three unions settled before a work stoppage.

Dozens of other Education Minnesota locals have staged informational picketing or public demonstrations before board meetings and outside schools, rallying community support for their contract demands.

The Burnsville Education Association (BEA) served pie to some 300 union members and supporters who joined an informational picket and rally on March 14, or “Pi Day” for math enthusiasts.

Afterward, union members spoke at a school board listening session, demanding a bigger share of the economic pie, particularly for adult basic education teachers and early learning teachers who are not yet on the union’s main salary schedule.

Educators are holding firm to some non-economic demands, too.

BEA members are looking to address concerns about violence in their schools, and demanding that educators who are injured at work don’t have to use their personal days to cover any absences before they qualify for workers’ compensation.

In Lakeville, educators are resisting a district proposal that would give administrators the power to transfer teachers into other positions that they are licensed to fill. Union members would be subject to involuntary transfers before or even during the school year, Surma said.

“Teachers develop relationships with kids, that’s kind of the foundation of how we do our work,” she said. “Students build trust with us, and we get to know them and know what they need. Disrupting that is really disruptive to kids.”

Both Education Minnesota Lakeville, which represents 765 educators, and the BEA, which represents about 650, had bargaining or mediation dates scheduled in late March.

“We hope to make progress,” Surma said. “That’s our first choice, to continue to make progress at the table toward a settlement that meets everybody’s needs and doesn’t disrupt the classroom for the kids.”

Lakeville educators will hold a rally with community supporters at 6 p.m. March 26 at the district offices, located at 17630 Juniper Path, Lakeville.

– Michael Moore, Union Advocate editor