In the case of the Culver City Federation of Teachers (CCFT) and the Culver City Unified School District (CCUSD), it depends on their respective takes of the e-mails sent by CCUSD school board president Steven Gourley in recent months.
CCFT President David Mielke believes the notes, which he says include personal proposals by Gourley to teachers regarding how to solve the district’s budget woes, cross a line and constitute bad-faith bargaining. To that end, CCFT attorneys last week filed an unfair labor practice charge with the state’s Public Employment Relations Board, charging CCUSD and Gourley with violations of state laws governing the collective bargaining process.
CCFT is one of two employee unions currently in negotiations with the district regarding a furlough day proposal for the next two school years. CCFT and CCUSD declared they were at impasse in March, with the next bargaining session scheduled for Tuesday, May 25.
“For a board member during impasse … for him at that point to then start dealing directly with employees, that’s not good,” said Mielke in explaining CCFT’s position. “We don’t really want to antagonize Steve Gourley; he’s the president of the board. … But by the same token, we just couldn’t sit back and have the bargaining process poisoned, and allow them to break the law.”
However, both Gourley and CCUSD Superintendent Dr. Myrna Rivera Coté, the latter of whom CCFT informed of the charge in a written letter, offered a different interpretation of events.
Gourley doesn’t dispute that he corresponded directly with teachers. However, he contends such communications took place after Mielke encouraged teachers to write CCUSD school board members with their concerns. In other words, Gourley said he was simply answering questions, not attempting to engage in personal bargaining with individual members of the union.
“I guess he (Mielke) expected me not to answer and explain my positions,” Gourley said.
“I don’t think what has been done in bringing this claim is in the best interests of a board being asked to interact with all parties. … It’s not the way I think to go when you are trying to solve probably the biggest education -crisis since I’ve been born, and that’s a long time.”
Asked whether she had any problem with what Gourley wrote in his e-mails, Coté declined comment before defending his right to engage in personal correspondence with teachers.
“He responded with his own opinions and his own ideas,” Coté said. “The union felt it was negotiating with individual unit members rather than negotiating at the table.”
While the Public Employment Relations Board can’t levy any significant penalties even should it find the district and Gourley at fault – the board simply has the ability to simply order CCUSD to bargain in good faith – Mielke said the union still believed that filing the charge was the proper call.
“We still felt that it was worthwhile to take this step, really to preserve the integrity of the process,” Mielke said. “We’re just going to stop it at the beginning.”
Coté brought the charge to the attention of the CCUSD board during its most recent meeting May 11, but has not engaged in any follow-up discussion to this point. When she does, she said she will offer a simple suggestion.
“The recommendation, of course, is that board members don’t respond, other than to acknowledge that you received the e-mail,” Coté said.
Editor Scott Tittrington can be reached at (310) 437-4401 ext. 210 or editor@culvercitynews.org.
