The board charges that the head of the union, Joel Cook, threatened Richard Cassidy, the South Burlington School Board chairman.
Cook sent an email to Cassidy on Feb. 25 advising the board chair that the South Burlington teachers were prepared to strike and that they could picket Cassidy’s law firm, Hoff Curtis.
“The immediate future appears to be one that includes labor unions picketing the offices of Phil Hoff and Dave Curtis, and, frankly, I don’t want that to happen,” Cook wrote.
Shortly afterward Cassidy recused himself from the negotiating team. He responded in an email that he was forced to withdraw because the situation presented a conflict of interest.
In a March 1 press release, the Vermont-NEA “welcomed” Cassidy’s decision to drop out of negotiations. The board alleges that the union threatened Cassidy’s law firm with financial harm.
The complaint was filed with the Vermont Labor Relations Board. The Vermont School Boards Association also joined the suit as an intervenor in support of the South Burlington School District.
Elizabeth Fitzgerald, a South Burlington School Board member, said Cook’s email undermined the integrity of the collective bargaining process and could make it difficult for the community to “elect and retain qualified representation.”
“We feel the email from the Vermont-NEA was inappropriate and outside the agreed upon process set when we started negotiating 15 months before the contract was settled,” Fitzgerald said.
The South Burlington board went into negotiations shortly afterward. One of the sticking points was automatic step pay increases for teachers that are designed to kick in without a contract. Fitzgerald said the board unsuccessfully pushed for suspension of step increases. The new three-year contract requires that the board and association adhere to a strict negotiating schedule, she said. (Editor’s note: This section was corrected on May 24, 2011.)
After the contract was settled, Fitzgerald said the board reexamined its conflict of interest policy and determined that Cassidy’s need to recuse himself was a direct result of Cook’s email – not the policy itself.
“As we had further discussions, we found that not only would Richard have to recuse himself from current negotiations, he would also have to recuse himself from any negotiations into the future as well,” Fitzgerald said. In addition, she said the union’s action would affect the future candidacy of Cassidy on the board as well. “We felt we needed to get some guidance on how to move forward.”
Steve Dale, executive director of VSBA, said Cook’s behavior “is not consistent with the best practices in collective bargaining, and we should establish right now this isn’t the way we’re going to do business. Picking off board members you don’t want to see participate is not acceptable in Vermont and we’d like to see that clearly established.”
Dale said this was the first time that the union had used “bullying tactics” to intimidate a board member in Vermont. He called the practice “destructive” and said the Vermont School Boards Association wants to make sure it doesn’t happen again in other communities that are negotiating with the teachers’ union in the coming year.
“It shouldn’t be possible to go around the collective bargaining process,” Dale said. “School board members serve their boards as an act of commitment to community. They don’t need to be subject to bullying tactics having to do with any aspect of their job having home or business picketed.”
Dale said going after a board member personally is unacceptable. “This time it’s an attorney, next time it could be a hairdresser or a shop owner,” Dale said.
Darren Allen, the communications director for the union, said the filing was sent to the press before his office received it. “We’re still reviewing it,” Allen said. “Until we do so not going to comment except that we do believe it’s baseless.”
Allen said he expected to release a statement at the end of Tuesday.
