posted 2/15/10
Members of the AEA and APS negotiations team will begin negotiations on March 8, 2010. Negotiations procedures are defined in Article 3 of the AEA-APS Master Agreement. The entire master agreement is renegotiated every three years by contractual agreement. The full contract was open in 2008, so this year is deemed a "reopener" for negotiations, and will be limited to negotiations related to the Compensation article, Appendices B and C, medical and dental insurance and two articles or new items specified by each side.
AEA selects members of their negotiations team as does the Board's team. This year the AEA team members are: Carla Burneson, Brenna Isaacs, Amy Nichols, Frank O'Hara, Vicki Reinhard, Patrick Sandt, Milton Stillwell, and Cathy Wildman. The APS team members include: Kari Allen, Kathleen Hostetler, Tony Van Gytenbeek, Cassie Parra, James Scott, William Stuart, Damon Smith, and Rod Weeks.
Five dates have been scheduled for the teams to meet during this round of negotiations. They include: March 8, 22, April 9, 16, and May 5. Teams will meet alternately between the Admin building and the AEA office. The first negotiations meeting will be at the AEA office.
The AEA negotiations team has been meeting since January to prepare for negotiations. We will be releasing a bargaining survey to members during the week of February 16-24, the results of which will be reviewed and categorized in order to finalize the interests we will take to the table. Following each round of negotiations AEA members will receive a negotiations update, either by email, or in hard copy. Updates will also be posted on the Negotiations page of the AEA website at www.auroraea.org/negotiations.htm.
The process used in negotiating the AEA-APS Master Agreement in the past is called "facilitated interest-based negotiations." This means that we have had a facilitator (not a member of either team) who facilitates the process, takes notes and sends them out, ensures that tentative agreements are verified and helps to keep the teams focused on the issues to be negotiated. This year’s negotiations may take on a more traditional process given that negotiations will be occurring in a budget deficit environment.
We encourage you to return to this page frequently during negotiations. We will be posting Negotiations Updates regularly.
AEA Negotiations Team
Grievance-6th Period/Supervision
MRBC Negotiations Topics:
Negotiations Updates:
2010 Negotiations Survey Results: