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HARRISBURG, ILLINOIS • 60CWEATHERTonight: 30 percent chance of rain, low around 60. Sunday: 30 percent chandSdt rain, high i the 80s. Monday through Wednesday: Dry, highs In the 80s, lows around 60.TEMPERATURESHigh Friday was 89; low was 62. NoHEA filingcharges of unfairlabor practicesBy CURTIS WINSTON _Staff Writer_The Harrisburg Education Association is taking a swing in its fight to retain contract language regarding the filling of vacant positions.HEA President Jim Butler said Friday that unfair labor practice charges against Unit 3 are being filed with the Illinois Education Labor Relations Board.The charges allege that the Harrisburg Board of Education committed the violation in the hiring of the head basketball coach.Butler said HEA filed a grievance on the matter with the school board in July. The filing of the unfair labor practice charge is the next step, he said.The teachers’ contract contains a clause that restricts the board to filling vacant positions from within, barring the acceptance of job applicants from outside the district.Even though the charge stems from the hiring of an extra-duty assignment, HEA contends the board also applies the samepractice to teaching positions.“They committed the unfair practice when they rejected the applicants,” Butler said. “They committed another violation when they hired someone from outside.”HEA maintains that the clause, which has been a part of the contract since 1971, gives teachers their only opportunity for professional advancement.The board has said the policy is too restrictive and doesn’t allow for the hiring of the best possible people. It wants the policydropped in instances where only one internal candidate applies.Board of Education President Gary Ellis said Friday night that HEA has timed the filing of the unfair labor practice charge with the strike in an effort to gain community support.“We figured it might happen,” Ellis said. “At this point, it’s a tactical move ... be-9■\\\fIJim Butler3 of the strikeGary EllisEllis defended the board’s position, saying that the district was “locked in” to hiring only people HEA wants it to hire.Butler said the unfair practice is widespread.“They continue to violate it,” he said. In the notices of vacancies, the board has a statement that says it reserves the right to reject any applicant.“They have now taken it upon their-selves to reject qualified and certified applicants fora job,” Butler said.Wally Zukas, director of UniServc, the union local support arm of the Illinois Edu-caton Association, said Friday the board is in blatant violation of the Illinois Education Labor Relations Act. “They can’t change the term of employment without bargaining,” he said.Zukas was at HEA’s “Crisis Center,” based at the Harrisburg Masonic Hall, offering support to HEA’s 147 striking members. The HEA strike will enter its fourth school day Monday, when a negotiating session is set for 1 p.m.In a letter to the Board of Education notifying it of the intent of file the unfair labor practice charges, HEA states “it is the association’s position that the district’s unfair labor practices at least partially cause and are prolonging the current strike.“Despite the district’s unlawful conduct, the association stands ready and willing to bargain,” it concludes.Butler said getting the unfair labor practice charge settled won’t happen before the end of the strike. If the union waited to go back to work until the issue was settled.“we’d be out past Christmas,” he said.It could be even longer, he added.The matter involves the lengthy process by the IELRB of determining whether there is a violation. The scenario is similar to the case of former Bulldog basketball coach Tony Holler, whose unfair labor charges remain in dispute after three years of bouncing from arbitration to appeals and back to arbitration.In other strike-related matters, HEA continued Friday to lam bast the board for its re-paid advertisment, HEA reacts to the board’s statement this past week that “there are very few districts in Illinois that do not rely on an outside negotiator.HEA contends that 76 percent of the schools south of Centralia don’t use outside negotiators.Ellis said HEA is playing a “numbers game” in its effort to rally community support behind the union. The board’s statement about the use of professional negotiators applied to the entire state, not just Southern Illinois, he said.Ellis defended Jack Taylor, the Decatur-based attorney who is Unit 3’s chief negotiator.“We’re very fortunate as a community to have Jack’s services available to us ... he’s a top notch lawyer,” Ellis said.A professional negotiator “shouldn’t be a threat to the community,” Ellis said, adding that he hated to think where the district would be without Taylor’s services.The board has said that it needs the advice of a professional when negotiating a contract and refuses to meet HEA at the bargaining table without Taylor present.“If it’s just basically money, the board may attempt to bargain without the negotiator,” Ellis said. But, as the current negotiations revolve around grievances and language, an attorney specializing in education law is needed, he said.Also, an argument on the board’s side points to the powerful Illinois Education Association, which offers local teachers’ unions similar professional negotiating advice at just a phone call away.“We don’t have that liberty available to us and it’s going to cost the community,”SATURDAY, aug 221992Vol. 78, No. 46INSIDE94th Stonefort-Reunion Is' j||coming up.—Page 12Commentary..........2Records . Jl§^§|....4 Farm Report LifestylesClassified .......12-13IAMERICANListen UpSpace-agetechnology defeats deafness.-Section InsertWEEKENDTeen ValuesSurvey of 126,000 teens shows disturbing results.—Section InsertEllis said.While Butler has said he understands the board’s need for a professional negotiator, he maintains that the use of Taylor is delaying an end to the strike.HEA has contended that negotiation sessions that could have been scheduled before the start of school were not slated because Taylor was unable to attend.Ellis said that Taylor works for a law firm that specializes in school law and that he has committments to other school dis-liance on a professional negotiator. In a tricts.Putting contract language aside, HEA has prepared a one-page report that compares Harrisburg’s teacher insurance costs and salaries to other South Seven districts.The base salary for a beginning Harrisburg teacher ranks fourth highest in the South Seven behind Marion at first place, Benton in second place and West Frankfort at third.Base salaries for Harrisburg teachers are $21,351, according to HEA figures. Marion starts at $22,717, Benton at $21,739 and West Frankfort at $21,517.Herrin has the lowest base pay in the league at $19,701. Mount Vernon is seventh at $20,137 and Carbondale is sixth at$20,415.For teachers with a master’s degree and 10 years of experience, Harrisburg ranks third in the South Seven at $31,688.For top salaries, Harrisburg ranks sixth, with 25 years of experience bringing41,123.On insurance, the current board proposal would lower the amount of the premium paid by the board to 64 percent for a teacher and 25 percent for a family member. That’s down from the 1991-92 amount of 80 percent and 33 percent.Ellis said that the district has “only ... X number of dollars to work with.”“You work with insurance, you’re going to have to take away from salaries. You work with salaries, you’re going to have to take away from insurance.”Ellis said he hoped both the HEA and the board of education would come to the table ready to bargain. He said movement on the part of both sides is needed to end the strike and get students in school.Suspectmay be inNevadaBy NICK MARIANO Staff WriterPolice said they believe they may possibly have a fugitive wanted for auto theft and for questioning concerning the murder of a Carrier Mills man in custody in Nevada, according to the sheriffs department.Saline County Sheriff George Henley said Friday night he is hopeful that the report coming from Nevada authorities will confirm that they have 19-year-old Joe W. Jordan, formerly of Pope County, in custody along with the 1989 Ford Mustang that was stolen from murder victim Ralph Thompson.Thompson, 54, was shot three times and killed Aug. 11. He was found dead two days later covered in a quilt by a neighbor passing his home.According to reports Henley has received from Nevada late Friday night, two subjects were apprehended when a gray Mustang was found broken-down in Nevada. The car has been matched with the car stolen from Thompson after the killing. The subjects, however, are not cooperating with the Nevada police and have not been identified. They apparently have no form of identification with them, Henley said.According to the sheriff’s department, the subject’s physical description including tattoos match those of Jordan’s.Henley remains optimistic. “I feel good it is him. It’s matching up pretty good. But at this point, we can not be sure. There is a good possibility that it is Joe Jordan and the car.”The second subject, it is believed, is from Arkansas, which was where Jordan last resided.No other information was available atpress time.
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Harrisburg Daily Register
Harrisburg, Illinois, US
Sat, Aug 22, 1992
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