Star Tribune
More school districts are in mediation with their teachers unions. Does that mean strikes are ahead?
Dozens of Minnesota school districts are seeking mediators to help negotiate contracts with teachers unions this year, including three of the biggest: Anoka-Hennepin, St. Paul and Minneapolis.
By law, mediation has to occur before a union can call a strike. But that doesn’t mean that districts in mediation are necessarily headed toward a walkout in a year when settling teachers contracts has taken longer statewide.
“When we hear a district is in mediation, it is not a bad thing,” said Denise Specht, president of Education Minnesota, the state’s teachers union. “There’s no shame in having a third party help you get to a resolution.”
Altogether, 57 districts have requested mediation so far, a number that is slightly higher than usual but not unprecedented, said Johnny Villarreal, commissioner of the Minnesota Bureau of Mediation Services. The bureau typically gets involved in roughly 50 contract negotiations each bargaining cycle.
Gary Lee, deputy executive director of the Minnesota School Boards Association, agrees mediation is a valuable step in the process. Moving negotiations into mediation does “not indicate a strike at all,” he said, and the process generally results in an agreement for both the district and its teachers. Seeing a higher number of districts in mediation this year indicates that the parties are starting negotiations farther apart than they have in the past.
“Mediation is an opportunity to bridge that gap,” he said.
What starts the mediation?
Contract mediation usually begins when negotiations between the parties become non-productive. Either the employer or the union can file for mediation, and sometimes it’s done jointly. But if one or the other files, the other party is bound by law to participate.
Who are the mediators?
The Bureau of Mediation Services has five mediators to cover the state, plus one open position it hopes to fill. Mediators’ work is not limited to contract mediations with school districts — they also work with cities, counties, townships, public utilities and other public employers and their unions.
Mediator candidates typically have seven years of experience as a chief advocate for an employer or a union, though the bureau has lowered the requirement to five years to broaden the applicant pool for the open job. A law degree or a master’s degree with a concentration in labor law or labor relations can count toward that experience.
“They have to have that bargaining-table experience,” Villarreal said.
In the mid-1990s, the bureau had more than 30 full-time positions, he said. It has a staff of 11 today.
“We are not unlike most public agencies and trying to do more with less,” he said.
Specht said unions expected a bit of a backlog with so many districts in mediation and a limited number of mediators, which may also be driving up the number of filings.
“People are just getting in line, thinking that they want to reserve a spot just in case things get really really bad or in case things stall,” she said.
What does a session look like?
Mediation sessions are closed to the public. The session begins with district representatives and union leaders identifying issues to work out. The mediator then typically separates the parties and goes back and forth between them to work toward a resolution. In some situations, the parties come back together to hear proposals.
Once a tentative agreement is reached, the union then votes on it and the district handles the ratification process in a public meeting.
How long does mediation last?
The length of sessions and how many sessions are required varies widely, Villarreal said.
“It’s dependent on the situation, the number of issues and the temperature at the bargaining table,” he said.
He’s been with the bureau since 2007 and remembers some cases that required just one hourlong session and others that stretched on for numerous sessions, including one that ran for 23 hours.
Negotiations can continue between mediation sessions.
What happens if mediation doesn’t work?
In cases where the mediator is not able to help the parties come to agreement, the union can file an intent-to-strike notice. In Minnesota, teachers unions cannot file that notice until 30 days after the first mediation session.
Filing an intent to strike kicks off a 10-day cooling-off period, during which the parties again go to the bargaining table with a mediator.
If they can’t reach an agreement, then the union members can strike, as happened with teachers in St. Paul in 2020 and Minneapolis in 2022.
Most cases are resolved before a strike takes place, Villarreal said.
Specht agreed: “Nobody files for mediation in hopes that they do go on strike.”
The Minnesota Department of Transportation closed part of a state highway Wednesday evening near Austin because of a “major hazardous materials release” in the area.
Hwy. 56 from Hayfield to Waltham, a stretch covering about five miles, was closed in both directions and drivers were directed to follow a detour to Blooming Prairie on U.S. Hwy. 218.
No information on the hazardous materials released was immediately available.
A federal judge dismissed a civil lawsuit against Minnesota state trooper Ryan Londregan in the shooting death of Ricky Cobb II during a 2023 traffic stop.
The decision is the latest development in a case that has drawn heated debate over excessive use of force by law enforcement. Criminal charges against Londregan were dismissed by Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty in June, saying the prosecution didn’t have the evidence to proceed with a case.
On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Nancy E. Brasel granted Londregan’s motion to dismiss the civil suit, arguing he acted reasonably when he opened fire as Cobb’s vehicle lurched forward with another state trooper partly inside.
Londregan’s attorney Chris Madelsaid Wednesday that it’s been a “long, grueling journey to justice. Ryan Londregan has finally arrived.”
On July 31, 2023, the two troopers pulled over Cobb, 33, on Interstate 94 in north Minneapolis for driving without taillights and later learned he was wanted for violating a felony domestic no-contact order. Cobb refused commands to exit the car.
With Seide partly inside the car while trying to unbuckle Cobb’s seatbelt, the car moved forward. Londregan then opened fire, hitting Cobb twice.
In her decision, Brasel said the troopers were mandated by state law to make an arrest given Cobb’s domestic no-contact order violation. She said it was objectively reasonable for Londregan to believe Seide was in immediate danger as the car moved forward on a busy highway, which would make his use of force reasonable.
GREEN BAY, Wis. — Donald Trump walked down the steps of the Boeing 757 that bears his name, walked across a rain-soaked tarmac and, after twice missing the handle, climbed into the passenger seat of a white garbage truck that also carried his name.
The former president, once a reality TV star known for his showmanship, wanted to draw attention to a remark made a day earlier by his successor, Democratic President Joe Biden, that suggested Trump’s supporters were garbage. Trump has used the remark as a cudgel against his Democratic rival, Vice President Kamala Harris.
”How do you like my garbage truck?” Trump said, wearing an orange and yellow safety vest over his white dress shirt and red tie. ”This is in honor of Kamala and Joe Biden.”
Trump and other Republicans were facing pushback of their own for comments by a comedian at a weekend Trump rally who disparaged Puerto Rico as a ”floating island of garbage.” Trump then seized on a comment Biden made on a late Wednesday call that “The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters.”
The president tried to clarify the comment afterward, saying he had intended to say Trump’s demonization of Latinos was unconscionable. But it was too late.
On Thursday, after arriving in Green Bay, Wisconsin, for an evening rally, Trump climbed into the garbage truck, carrying on a brief discussion with reporters while looking out the window — similar to what he did earlier this month during a photo opportunity he staged at a Pennsylvania McDonalds.
He again tried to distance himself from comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, whose joke had set off the firestorm, but Trump did not denounce it. He also said he did not need to apologize to Puerto Ricans.
”I don’t know anything about the comedian,” Trump said. ”I don’t know who he is. I’ve never seen him. I heard he made a statement, but it was a statement that he made. He’s a comedian, what can I tell you. I know nothing about him.”
