At the special Guam Education Board meeting on Wednesday, GFT DOE Chair and Board-Union representative, Doris Terlaje, questioned the Board’s decision to further delay the Support Staff Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA). For the past four years, the Board has stalled the CBA process for the Support Staff by questioning GFT’s recognition. “Four years is too long,” stated Terlaje at the meeting. Terlaje presented CBAs from 1983, 1988, 2006 and a letter from DOA in 1978 acknowledging GFT’s recognition for Support Staff. DOA advised DOE on May 7, 2014 that the Board can resume negotiations with GFT because there is no evidence that GFT has engaged in an unfair labor practice or violated any provisions of Public Law 9-140. However, the Board is further seeking the Attorney General’s opinion.
The Board has silenced the voices of our support staff for so many years questioning something that should have been mutually understood based on years of negotiating collective bargaining agreements. Today, GFT retrieved the original recognition for Support Staff in April 27, 1977. A copy has been sent to DOE. The Board should have no reason to further delay the Support Staff CBA.