8-16-07 MFT Contract negotiation session - ANALYSIS

*  Over the past months of observing these negotiations, I have developed some respect for the process.  I have come to appreciate the need for the negotiation to be a deliberative, discerning process, and to occur in an environment free of harassment and intimidation, where ideas can be freely shared.

*  However, while observing these negotiations, it has been a constant frustration to me that the negotiation process does not seem to acknowledge the deep challenges faced by the district and the very real questions about our collective future.  It has seemed to me that while major MPS structural problems wait outside the door, the negotiators have spent hundreds of person-hours discussing insignificant issues about district policy and practice.  The people at the negotiation table are the senior leadership teams for the district and for the union.  It is maddening to watch them bicker about whether this or that policy is being implemented properly, while I see signs of profound district crisis.  The people in this room need to be at the center of rebuilding this district, but it seems that they can’t be bothered by that right now, and the concept of a district in crisis never enters the conversation.

* As a picture of impending disaster was presented to the negotiation session, MFT quibbled about old numbers not matching new numbers, and administrators lamented out loud that the problem would only get worse if “they”, the voters of Minneapolis, did not approve a referendum.  It seemed to elude each and every one of the negotiators that they themselves needed to be a critical part of any solution, that it wasn’t just someone else’s task to save MPS.

* The lack of courage by the negotiators in the face of clearly presented danger drove me nuts during this negotiation as I slumped further into my observer’s chair in the back of the room.  I briefly considered screaming at the negotiators to pull their heads out the sand and realize that everybody at the table was critical to solving the problems of MPS, and that they should be working on that right now instead of double-checking the CFO’s math.

* Given the gutlessness of the negotiators, I hardly found the ending discussion surprising, where both MFT and the administration admitted that they really don’t know how many teachers are working in MPS, or exactly what they are doing.