Wyoming Um Church Slates Community Candle Lighting Monday

Aiden M. Walsh

The recent strike at Lake-Lehman School District has elicited much discussion in my travels in my legislative district. 
E-mails, letters, and phone calls from constituents on all sides of the issue have voiced their concern about teacher strikes, the disruption of the education process, and the strike law as it exists. 
It is important to note that, some time ago, I concluded that our law regulating collective bargaining disputes between school districts and their employees (Act 88 of 1992) is not perfect. 
The law needs to be re-evaluated to address the impact of teacher strikes. 
There are two proposals to end teacher strikes -- Senate Bill 20 from state Sen. Robert Mellow, and House Bill 1369 from state Rep. Todd Rock.
Senate Bill 20 proposes banning teacher strikes and instituting binding arbitration to resolve disputes. House Bill 1369 proposes, in essence, a ban on teacher strikes with no means of resolving collective bargaining disputes. 
As of this writing, neither bill has been acted on by the respective committee in either house, nor am I aware of planned movement. 
During the past few weeks, I have been drafting a bipartisan resolution to instruct the House Labor Relations Committee to establish a full-time subcommittee to conduct public hearings on our current law and legislative proposals that address teacher strikes and to make recommendations to the full house by July 1. 
My resolution will be introduced in the near future and I expect to have the support of numerous House members from both parties. My resolution is instructing the labor relations committee to examine House Bill 1369 and other proposals, and develop a bipartisan solution. 
It is important to note that there have been numerous proposals in the legislature during the past decade to end teacher strikes and none have been enacted into law. In fact, the last time either body of the legislature passed a bill on this issue was in 1995 when the house passed House Bill 1990, which proposed banning teacher strikes and binding arbitration. 
This bill was never considered by the Senate and died. 
Although everyone agrees that school employee strikes are disruptive, reaching a consensus on a solution has not been possible. 
Although reaching a consensus on a change to law has been historically difficult, it is our duty as state legislators to keep trying to solve this problem. The education of our children is too important. 
During the past decade there has been no action by the house or senate to establish a task force or working group to examine our current law and find a means to address teacher strikes. 
My resolution would result in the first serious effort at solving this problem since 1995. 
My resolution will force members of both parties to sit down and work together to develop bipartisan consensus on this issue. 
I would be remiss not to mention that the current debacle involving the tolling of Interstate 80 resulted from the passage of legislation that was not aired publicly so the affected stakeholders did not have the opportunity to weigh in. 
 
Acting legislatively without hearings on such a controversial issue would land the commonwealth in a similar position to Act 44 (tolling of Interstate 80) with regard to school employee strikes. 
We need a bipartisan solution to the problem. Any proposal, such as House Bill 1369, has to have bipartisan support to become law. 
My goal is to develop legislation that will be passed by both legislative bodies and be signed by the governor. I trust we will be able to develop legislation that will address teacher strikes, and treat all parties fairly.