By Ben Velderman
EAGnews.org

HILLSBORO, N.H. – The freedom to vote one’s conscience is a sacred right to most Americans, but that’s not the case in one New Hampshire school district.

New Hampshire state officials have ruled that the Hillsboro-Deering school board committed unfair labor practices when its chairman refused to support a tentative contract with the local teachers union,  the Concord Monitor reports.

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According to the Monitor, board Chairman Richard Pelletier was legally required to “recommend and advocate” for the signed, tentative contract the district reached with its local teachers union last December, based on ground rules the two sides agreed to before negotiations began.

Pelletier was one of the five members on the district’s negotiating team.

However, Pelletier failed to second a motion made by another board member to vote on the tentative contract. No one else on the board seconded the motion either, which resulted in the contract not being voted on by the board within 15 days of the tentative agreement being reached – another of the pre-negotiating ground rules.

The Public Employee Labor Relations Board ruled last week that Pelletier was “obligated to actively support the tentative agreement through the process of ratification regardless” of his “personal feelings about the agreement.”

As a result of the state’s ruling, the board “must cease and desist from further violations of bargaining in good faith, publish the labor relations board’s decision on the district’s website and in prominent places around the school, and take a vote as soon as possible on the contract or reimburse the union for its share of mediation expenses,” the Monitor reports.

Apparently the thing that kept Pelletier from supporting the proposed one-year contract was the inclusion of an evergreen clause, which means the terms of this teachers’ contract will remain in full effect until a new agreement is reached.

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Teacher unions love evergreen clauses because they protect members’ salaries and insurance benefits even after the contract expires. That removes all sense of urgency for the unions during future contract negotiations. They can afford to hold out because the generous provisions of the previous contract remain in effect.

No wonder Pelletier balked at the proposed contract.

Regardless, a deal’s a deal. He was legally obligated to support the deal during that ill-fated board meeting last December and failed to do so.

Hopefully, the Hillsboro-Deering school board – and other school boards across the nation – will learn from this incident and will avoid making foolish agreements with teacher unions before entering into negotiations.

Chalk it up to a hard lesson learned.