Teachers set 2nd City Hall picketing for today

The Warwick Teachers Union (WTU) announced yesterday it plans to hold another informational picketing today at City Hall to “alert the public to the Warwick School Committee’s continued negligence in reaching a successor collective bargaining agreement (CBA) with the WTU and to let the Warwick taxpayers know that the Warwick School Committee (WSC) have allowed Superintendent Philip Thornton to waste roughly a half a million dollars in payments to a law firm for mediation, interest arbitration, frivolous court actions, and other legal expenses.”

The union conducted “informational picketing” last month at City Hall that was reported to have drawn about 300 people, but Union President Darlene Netcoh said there were more like 600 to 700 who stopped by in the two hours they were there.

Mayor Scott Avedisian said he didn’t want to comment ahead of today’s planned picketing in case it didn’t end up happening. However, he said Netcoh told him they would not be targeting him but were going to picket City Hall because doing so would get more media coverage.

Netcoh said she doesn’t recall commenting on media coverage but agreed City Hall provides more attention when it comes to “alerting the community” and that people don’t always notice when they picket at the administration building. She said in a phone call Wednesday that the WTU is not, in fact, targeting the mayor and instead is taking aim at the School Committee and Superintendent Philip Thornton. The reason she gave for choosing City Hall is “this is an issue that affects the entire city.”

“We are awaiting the interest arbitrator’s award; the union has offered now twice to make this award binding, and that way we will have contract language and a successor agreement,” Netcoh said of the current negotiation status. She added that Avedisian has set a mediation date of May 23. Avedisian confirmed the date, saying it wasn’t one he chose but was the most convenient time for everyone from the school, union, the mediator and himself to meet.

School Committee Vice Chair Eugene Nadeau said Wednesday that the School Committee would meet with the union on Saturday and that the “over 100 hours” of meetings they have already had haven’t been successful. 

Thornton said the School Committee “continues to negotiate in good faith with the union leadership” and looks forward to “coming to an agreement on a new contract with the union leadership so that the school committee, educational leaders and the teachers can move forward as a district.”

In regards to what the union’s release called “frivolous court action,” Thornton said the School Committee is “disappointed” that any court action has been necessary.

“The School Committee would have preferred to have resolved these issues without court intervention. However, the School Committee is compelled to negotiate on behalf of the citizens and taxpayers of Warwick,” he said. Thornton noted that “to this point, the School Committee and leadership has received favorable rulings in a vast majority of the RIDE and Superior Court actions that have been filed. Court and RIDE actions related to electronic grading, the job fair, layoffs, ULP 6176A and requirements to arbitrate have all resulted in legal victories for the School Committee and the citizens of Warwick.” 

The School Committee has indeed made gains in the courts; Superior Court Justice Bennett Gallo struck down a State Labor Relations Board finding that the committee committed an unfair labor practice when it refused to abide by the terms of the expired contract. The union argued terms of the former contract remained in place until a new agreement was reached when the committee laid off more than the 20-teacher limit in response to the consolidation of secondary schools. The Superior Court later denied the union’s request for a stay of Gallo’s order.

In a press release sent out Wednesday morning, the union wrote that although it first attempted to begin negotiations in December 2014 to allow for enough time to reach an agreement before the August 31, 2015 expiration of the collective bargaining agreement, the School Committee did not begin negotiations until the summer of 2015 and requested mediation that fall.

“In November 2015, in the middle of mediation, Superintendent Thornton and the Warwick School Committee [WSC] filed for interest arbitration allegedly to seek a resolution to the contract dispute. To ensure that this method would indeed result in a successor collective bargaining agreement, the Warwick Teachers’ Union, in December 2015, proposed that the sides agree to make the neutral interest arbitrator’s decision binding,” Union President Darlene Netcoh stated in the release. “However, the WSC refused this offer and have yet to respond to the WTU’s recently reiterated proposal. Every taxpayer in Warwick should wonder why the WSC would reject the neutral arbitrator’s decision, after they and the superintendent are the ones who chose this route and have spent a year and a half and close to a quarter of a million dollars."

Today’s picketing is planned for 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. at City Hall. Captain Joseph Hopkins of the Warwick Police Department said the WPD would put into effect the same presence as it did at last month’s picketing.