On October 3rd, thousands of FTA members said loudly and clearly that we WILL STRIKE if an agreement is not reached after all legal bargaining steps have been exhausted. In a complete reversal of his public statement, "to stay in space with people in difficult conversations," Superintendent Bob Nelson informed us, three days after our historic Strike Vote, that he and board trustees prefer to relinquish all major contract decisions to the fact-finding report. We view this as an abdication of leadership and an avoidance of discussion.
Supt Nelson
asked the FTA bargaining team to agree to accept the fact finders report knowing that this request would require the bargaining team to completely ignore our Strike Vote, and acquiesce the power of our thousands of members to the fact-finding report.
even if this report failsto positively address and improve the very issues we've been working to change for the last 15 months.
Throughout the entire process, The Fresno Teachers Association has been transparent that our contract proposals are about addressing the needs of students and educators.
While we are confident in our position, we also believe that these important issues are best resolved between the parties involved. In addition, the results can only be implemented with fidelity, if both sides have buy-in. Relationships can't be repaired and positive systemic change can't be achieved by deferring solely to an outside panel. We need to have tough conversations about education in Fresno.
The fact-finding hearing is scheduled for Nov. 6th & 7th. We hope that the fact-finding panel will review all the information available and make recommendations that will help us retain & recruit the best educators, and that will help us make major improvements for our students. If this is the case, we look forward to working with Supt Nelson and district staff to implementing smaller class sizes, expanding the social & emotional supports our students need, recruiting literacy tutors, giving teachers classroom autonomy, funding more field trips & student reward programs, improving salaries & healthcare, making our schools safer, and eliminating mandatory meeting hours so that teachers have more time for students and parents.
We are calling on Supt Nelson and board trustees to do everything in their power to avoid a strike by coming to the table with meaningful proposals, aimed at creating positive systemic changes in our district. When this happens we are ready to have a marathon bargaining session whenever, wherever.
If you would like to see the most current proposal comparison, please see below
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