P.O. Box 909 ● Trenton, NJ 08605-0909 ● Phone: 609.695.7600 ● Fax: 609.695.0413 ● Web: www.njsba.org/PI

Star-Ledger Supports NJSBA Position on Labor Issue

TRENTON, February 3, 2011 —The Star-Ledger today published an editorial calling for enactment of legislation that would restore the ability of local boards of education to implement their last-best offer when contract negotiations are fully exhausted.

The article appeared following a meeting between the newspaper’s editorial board and NJSBA President Ray Wiss and members of the Association’s staff on Jan. 31. The article can be viewed at the following link:

• Editorial: Cap teacher salary hikes in New Jersey

Last-best offer, a concept prevalent in public sector labor negotiations, was eliminated from collective bargaining in public school districts in 2003 as a result of union-backed legislation. Untrue are union claims that the provision caused strikes. In fact, there is no correlation between last best offer and strikes. Last best offer was implemented 11 times from 1968 through 2003. During that same period, New Jersey experienced 205 illegal teacher strikes. In seven of those 11 instances of last best offer, no strikes took place.

Even though it was rarely used, the existence of last best offer gave unions an incentive to bargain in earnest, while providing local boards of education with an effective counterbalance to threats of job actions. Its reestablishment is critical to local school boards, which face limited state funding and a 2 percent tax levy cap.

The New Jersey School Boards Association is a federation of 588 local boards of education and includes 44 charter school associate members. NJSBA advocates the interests of school districts, trains local school board members, and provides resources for the advancement of public education.