Kelley Baker kbaker@hslegalfirm.com
Karen Haase
Steve Williams
Bobby Truhe
khaase@hslegalfirm.com
swilliams@hslegalfirm.com
btruhe@hslegalfirm.com
NSEA’S REQUEST FOR RECOGNITION -PROCEED DELIBERATELY Most school superintendents and ESU administrators have recently received a letter from Larry Sherer, NSEA’s Director of Collective Bargaining and Research. The letter reviewed some of the provisions of LB 397 and asked each board to recognize its local teacher association as the exclusive bargaining agent for nonsupervisory certificated staff for the 2012-13 and 2013-14 contract years. We don’t have a quarrel with any of the statements in Mr. Sherer’s letter and we do not object to the NSEA’s desire to complete the step of having boards of education recognize their local teacher associations. LB397 requires teacher associations to request recognition by September 1, 2013 and boards to respond by October 1st. Nevertheless, we caution districts against substantially changing their past practice based on the general statements of the NSEA. If you have always recognized your local teacher association as the bargaining agent, there is nothing wrong with continuing to do so. However, Mr. Scherer has requested that boards recognize the local teacher association as the “exclusive bargaining agent for the district’s non-supervisory certificated staff. . .” That could include employees such as the school nurse, speech pathologist, and school psychologist – persons who have not been represented by the teacher association and whom you do not want the association to represent. Further, there are a few schools that have settled negotiations very informally and have not recognized any entity as a bargaining agent for employees. Recommendation. If the NSEA’s request for recognition changes the way you have negotiated with your staff, or if you have any qualms or nagging doubts about the way this process works in your district, we urge you to seek the advice of your school attorney before adopting the resolution that the NSEA sent to you. As always, if you have questions or concerns about this or other legal issues, feel free to contact Kelley, Karen, Steve or Bobby. I:\3\7613\E-mail Updates\116 - bargaining agent letter.docx