Two sides await facts

GLENDALE — Teachers union officials say that an independent fact-finding process, a key step in trying to break a bargaining impasse with Glendale Unified, could all be for naught, no matter the findings.

Even if the nonbinding process finds that the Glendale Teachers Assn. is in the right, district administrators can still impose an employee health benefits cap, a key point of disagreement between the two sides, union representatives said.

Teachers would have to accept or walk out, union officials said.

“In the end, they can just impose,” said Steve Field, treasurer for the Glendale Teachers Assn. “Once they go through the entire process and the fact-finding report is out . . . [they can] impose their last, best and final [offer].”

But Glendale Unified Supt. Michael Escalante said the district would not have declared an impasse were it not confident that fact finding, should it be necessary, would render recommendations close to the district’s own proposals.

“We feel confident walking in,” he said. “Nobody is going to walk into a fact finding . . . [hoping for a] result, and that says, ‘Whatever you’re trying to prove is not true.’”

Both sides could still resume bargaining and come to an agreement, which happened when an impasse was last declared in 2007.

“They know where they have to go, and if they decide to go there, we can return to the table and get this done,” Field said.

Escalante said he was optimistic both sides would find accord.

“I still believe there are opportunities to find a compromise,” he said. “We did it last time, even though where we landed was pretty much where we started, from the district’s perspective.”

The district continues to look for continuous cost-saving measures that would help balance an $18.5-million deficit projected for 2011-12. Union officials said they proposed almost $4 million in annual savings through 10 furlough days in the upcoming two school years.

“What’s confounding us is that on three separate occasions in the most recent bargaining process, we have given the district exactly what they’ve asked for, and once we do that they move the bar up,” Field said. “We called them on what they asked for each and every time.”

District officials said the teachers’ proposals were a one-time savings that would expire after 2011-12.

The union also proposed redesigning the health plans and a parcel tax, but directing the savings into offsetting furlough days rather than Glendale Unified’s dwindling bottom line, district officials said.

Union officials maintain the district could have been solvent for two years with furlough days, and then could revisit cost-saving measures again for 2011-12.

One thing the union objected to was a district proposal to open negotiations in September 2011 with salary negotiations.

“There’s only one reason to reopen salaries, and that’s to cut,” Field said. “Today it’s benefits, in September 2011, it’s our salaries.”