AUBURN — The Auburn School Committee’s lawyer filed a rebuttal and asked for fact finding Tuesday to allegations by the teachers union that labor laws were broken during negotiations.
Lawyer Peter Felmly, representing the School Committee, said in its counter to the Maine Labor Relations Board that when the School Committee and the union signed a memorandum of agreement last year, it was not a complete agreement on all conditions.
The School Committee was not bound to the agreement as the final say on all issues, and no labor laws were broken, Felmly said.
“There was no meeting of the minds between the parties in regard to the resolution of the reduction in force, teacher assignments or retirement articles,” Felmly said in his rebuttal to the MLRB.
The latest action illustrates that the School Committee and Auburn union are at an impasse regarding the three-year contract for 2015-2018.
Superintendent Katy Grondin said Tuesday the School Committee takes very seriously its “responsibilities to staff, students and the community of Auburn, and have at all times bargained with the union in good faith and according with Maine law.”
The committee’s negotiation team bargained with the best intentions to reach an amicable resolution with the union, Grondin said.
“We look forward to the opportunity to present all the facts at the Maine Labor Board, and to finalize negotiations with the school department’s teachers,” she said.
On March 24, Auburn Education Association representative Carl Bucciantini said that during mediation last year, both sides had to list topics to be covered in a memo of agreement and only those would be considered. Agreement was reached on pay and benefits.
Later, the administration said it wanted to talk about language regarding retirement, seniority and reduction in force. After both sides signed the agreement written by the mediator, “we should have been able to take the agreement to our membership” for a contract vote, Bucciantini said.
But in his letter to the MLRB Tuesday, Femley wrote that “there was an actual and honest misunderstanding as to the scope of the disputed memorandum of agreement.”
The School Committee thought the agreement was only about salary, benefits and working conditions, Grondin said. Inserting language without mutual discussion on other issues, such as reduction in force and teacher effectiveness, would violate state laws, she said.
The Auburn Educational Association represents more than 300 teachers, plus ed techs and other school support workers.
School staffers have worked without a contract since June.
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