Negotiations are at a stalemate

Negotiations are at a stalemate

fiction
edward w pritchard

School Superintendent, Cleveland Ohio was the most difficult job to perform in America. It must be. We had a new superintendent pretty much every other year.  Brilliant managers came in with excellent credentials, high hopes and plans and within a year the brutal reality of politics in Cleveland, Ohio wore them down and desperately they moved on to any assignment anywhere to escape.

Dr. Pinson was no exception. Beloved by the teachers and teachers union, friendly with the Mayor and Council, and respected by budgetary types he showed great promise. He shot hoops with students most every day at lunch time when he started his new job.

It was the small but powerful janitorial union that caused Dr. Pinson's downfall as Cleveland board superintendent. Dr. Pinson had negotiated successfully the 2013 budget with all the parties concerned, too numerous to list. Everything was agreed in a series of leveraged deals each dependent on two others.

The janitors union refused to play ball. They must have one more demand met, it was not negotiable. Of course if the janitors got a plum the teachers and the administrators and the suppliers and the students and the parents and the sports boosters and many others must renegotiate. The entire deal, negotiated over six months by Dr. Pinson to open the schools on time this fall hinged on the Janitors demands.

The janitors membership wanted a small underground lair at each school. A sanctuary for the hard working custodial staffs to escape to from time to time during the day. The teachers union on behalf of their members strongly objected. If the sanctuary was to be built they must be able to use it.  Budget objected, too many teachers, maybe it could be swung for the janitors who were few in numbers but no one else.

A deal was finally reached, a few schools now have deep underground lairs for janitors to escape to during the school day but under no circumstances at least for this budgetary period may teachers use the sanctuary during their day.
end