Board of Educ. v. Sered

• Decision Date: 22 February 2006
• Docket Number: No. 1-04-3223.,1-04-3223.
• Citation: 850 N.E.2d 821
• Parties: BOARD OF EDUCATION, GRANITE CITY COMMUNITY UNIT SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 9, Petitioner-Appellant, v. Lynne O. SERED, in her capacity as Chair of the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board, the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board, and the Granite City Federation of Teachers, Local 743, IFT-AFT, AFL-CIO, Respondents-Appellees.
• Court: United States Appellate Court of Illinois

850 N.E.2d 821

BOARD OF EDUCATION, GRANITE CITY COMMUNITY UNIT SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 9, Petitioner-Appellant, v. Lynne O. SERED, in her capacity as Chair of the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board, the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board, and the Granite City Federation of Teachers, Local 743, IFT-AFT, AFL-CIO, Respondents-Appellees.

No. 1-04-3223.

Appellate Court of Illinois, First District, Third Division.

February 22, 2006.

Rehearing Denied April 6, 2006.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

William Schooley, III, Collinsville, for Appellant.

Lisa Madigan, Attorney General, Chicago (Gary Feinerman and Ellen Stanfield, of counsel), for Appellees.

Kolker Law Offices, P.C., Belleville (Chris Kolker, of counsel), for Granite City Federation of Teachers, Local 743, IFT-AFT, AFL-CIO.

Justice ERICKSON delivered the opinion of the court:

This case arises from an order and opinion of the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board (the Board) affirming the decision of an administrative law judge (ALJ) that the Board of Education, Granite City Community Unit School District No. 9 (the District) engaged in unfair labor practices by failing to bargain in good faith. The case stems from two consolidated charges of unfair labor practices filed by the Granite City Federation of Teachers, Local 743, IFT-AFT, AFL-CIO (the Union) against the District.

PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

The Union alleged in two separate charges that the District violated sections 14(a)(5) and 14(a)(1) of the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Act (the Act) (115 ILCS 5/14(a)(5), (a)(1) (West 2002)), by failing to bargain in good faith when it bypassed the Union by dealing directly with its employees, unilaterally implemented a supervision schedule, and engaged in regressive bargaining by reneging on a tentative agreement. The executive director of the Board issued a complaint alleging that the District "withdrew a proposal to which [the Union and the District] had agreed and substituted a proposal, which reduced insurance provisions and increased the number of `docked days.'"¹

In October 2002, a hearing was held before the ALJ. In the recommended decision and order, the ALJ dismissed the section of the Union's complaint alleging that the District dealt directly with its employees and unilaterally implemented a supervision schedule, but found that the District violated sections 14(a)(5) and 14(a)(1) of the Act by reneging on an agreement reached on October 6, 2001, and engaging in regressive bargaining.

The District filed exceptions to the ALJ's recommendation, to which the Union responded. Upon review, the Board filed an opinion and order affirming the ALJ's decision. The District timely filed in this court a petition for administrative review. See 735 ILCS 5/3-113 (West 2002).

BACKGROUND

In May 2001, the Union and the District began negotiating for a new collective bargaining agreement (CBA) because the current agreement was due to expire on September 12, 2001. The Union's negotiating team consisted of Laura Aerne, Lee Wilson, Betty Hicks, Amy Alsop, Linda McDonnell, Sonja Stewart, and Terri Millikin. The District's negotiating team consisted of Ron Booth, Jeff Parker, John Caudron, Steve Balen, Cindy Mills, Larry Dew, and Ray Earnisse. Max Aud served as the mediator throughout the negotiations.

The parties engaged in an interest-based bargaining (IBB) negotiation where they "brainstormed" ideas in order to limit the issues and start the discussions. Before the bargaining sessions began, the parties agreed to certain ground rules. These rules mandated that each person keep the discussions of the sessions confidential and that every person attending the session have the authority to make binding agreements. During the IBB sessions, the parties discussed topics such as teacher salary, evaluations, health insurance, class size, "duty,"² "dock days," teacher recertification, and extracurricular activities.

On September 17, 2001, unable to reach an agreement, the teachers, represented by the Union, went on strike. The Union stopped using the IBB method, but continued to negotiate using a more traditional bargaining method where each team would meet in separate rooms and the mediator would communicate proposals and ideas between the two rooms. The ground rules concerning confidentiality and authority remained the same. By September 28, 2001, it is undisputed that the parties agreed on all terms except for "dock days."

On October 5, 2001, the parties began an intensive negotiation session at the mediator's office. They began the negotiation using the traditional negotiation method, but failed to reach an agreement on "dock days." Parker, a member of the District's negotiation team, told the mediator that he wanted to propose a solution to the Union where the teachers would incur no "dock days" in exchange for incurring additional 30 minutes of "duty" time per school day. Sometime after midnight on October 6, 2001, the mediator selected two members from the Union team, Aerne and Alsop, and two members from the District team, Parker and Caudron, and isolated them in a room together.

The facts are undisputed that Parker, during that negotiation, made an admitted serious proposal to Aerne and Alsop for no "dock days" in exchange for extra "duties." Aerne and Alsop accepted the proposal, shook hands with Parker and Caudron, and believed that they made an agreement. Because the parties were exhausted from negotiating throughout the night and Parker was to attend a benefit golf tournament early in the morning, they agreed to return at 7 p.m. that evening instead of writing out the agreement immediately. They agreed that the Union team would draft the language regarding "duty" and the extracurricular payment schedule³ and that the District team would draft the language for the remainder of the agreed terms.

Before returning to the mediator's office, the Union team announced to its membership that a meeting would be held to ratify the oral agreement and reserved a hall for the meeting. A District employee, Mills, created a document titled "Tentative Agreement" that encompassed the terms discussed between the parties except for the "duty" language, which was to be drafted by the Union.

When the parties returned to the mediator's office later that evening, the Union team learned through the mediator that there was no longer an agreement. The District team told the mediator that in order to get the agreement ratified, it needed four school board member votes, but was unable to obtain them. At that time, the Union team became upset because it thought that the District team reneged on its agreement, and asked for a new proposal from the District team in writing. The District team took the document titled "Tentative Agreement" and made hand-written cross-outs and additions on it, making substantial changes to "dock days" as well as to nearly all other terms, including those that were undisputedly agreed to in September 2001. It imposed mandatory arbitration for health insurance, required eight "dock days," no "duty" requirement, and changed the recertification language. Without the hand-written changes, the document reflected the agreement that the parties made earlier that day.

The parties eventually ended the strike by ratifying an agreement on October 11, 2001, where the parties agreed to submit the issue of "dock days" to an arbitrator under the grievance procedure. On December 20, 2001, an arbitrator issued an opinion on the issue of "dock days".

On October 3, 2001, the Union filed an unfair labor practice charge with the Board against the District, alleging that the District violated sections 14(a)(5) and 14(a)(1) of the Act by failing to bargain in good faith. On November 5, 2001, the Union filed a second charge against the District, again alleging that it violated sections 14(a)(5) and 14(a)(1) of the Act. The charges were then consolidated.

On October 15 through 17, 2002, a hearing was held before the ALJ. At the hearing, the testimonies of the parties were in conflict. The ALJ found that the District witnesses were less than credible in their denials of an agreement. The ALJ determined that the District and the Union reached an agreement on October 6, 2001. The Union witnesses testified that the District's team, Parker and Caudron, told the Union team, Aerne and Alsop, that "we had an oral agreement." The record also indicated that the District and the Union had a history of collective bargaining prior to the current CBA. In past negotiations, both Union and District negotiating team members had the authority to make a deal. When presented with a proposal, the District would either (1) accept the deal, (2) deny the deal, or (3) inform the Union that it lacked the authority and thereafter sought approval from the school board on that issue. However, Parker and Caudron never told the Union that they did not have the authority to offer a proposal omitting "dock days" without the school board member's approval. Aerne testified that Parker and Caudron indicated that they had the permission to enter into the agreement.

At the end of the hearing, the District attempted to submit the arbitrator's decision regarding "dock days" into evidence. The ALJ did not allow the decision into evidence, finding it was neither relevant nor material.

On December 8, 2003, the ALJ issued a recommended decision and order finding that the District violated section 14(a)(5) and, derivatively, section 14(a)(1) of the Act. The ALJ found that the record clearly indicated that the parties entered into an agreement on October 6, 2001, and the District engaged in regressive bargaining by attempting to renegotiate significant portions of the agreement in its favor. The ALJ ordered the District to cease and desist from refusing to bargain with the Union, cease and desist from interfering with the District's employees in the exercise of their...