English as a Foreign Language

Wanna learn English as a "foriegn" language? Kaplan Test Prep goes global and cuts costs, by outsourcing through "Certified Providers" in various countries. The result: web pages such as this one (in the Philippines).

As of Nov. 14th, France can now boast to have its own KCEP, the kind that sells "English as a foriegn language". Kaplan Test Prep had always operated directly in France until upper-management announced at 10 AM that there would be a "smooth transition". Employees had heard nothing of these plans until this time, and by 6 PM they found themselves locked out of their Kaplan email accounts and the website blocked.  

Very smooth, indeed.

Present Progressive No. 11 Novermber 22 2013

Kaplan: teachers 'well paid,' rejects paid holidays, vacations

11/22/2013

One baby step forward and two giant steps back.

After making minimal movement for the first time on pay and benefits last month, Kaplan managers returned to the bargaining table on Nov. 15 still opposing paid holidays and vacations for part-time teachers and unwilling to revise their least-they-can-do wage proposal.

BARGAINING UPDATE

The stonewalling came after the Guild bargaining committee of Kaplan ESL teachers agreed to scale back its economic goals by lowering its proposed starting pay for teaching, its pay rates for non-teaching duties and its proposed pay increases for the term of the contract. 

“There is a pretty compelling argument that these teachers are quite well paid,” said lead management negotiator Patricia Dunn in refusing to move management’s economic package in the teachers’ direction. “I believe we pay our teachers fairly and appropriately.”

Although Dunn said average pay for Kaplan teachers in the classroom was more than $21 an hour, their actual average is much lower. Since the company pays teachers different rates for different duties, including the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour for class preparation, the overall average is really $17.59 an hour, 18 percent less than the classroom average. Some teachers average as little as $14.06 an hour.

Guild negotiators, who had already accepted management’s $18 hourly minimum teaching rate for temps and newly hired employees still on their six-month trial periods, reduced their minimum pay proposal for teachers with four-year degrees who had passed their trial periods to $20 from $22. Management, however, still wants to be able to pay those teachers as little as $18 an hour for classroom time.

On class prep and other non-classroom duties, Guild negotiators cut their proposal to $12 from $13. Management is offering only $10 for prep work and essay grading, even though it raised the prep rate to $12 for teachers in every other U.S. city shortly after New York teachers voted for Guild representation in June 2012.

The Guild also cut its proposed pay increase to 3.5 percent for each of three years in the proposed contract from 5 percent, while management is sticking with the 1 percent increase it proposed in each of next two years for employees with a teaching rate of less than $25 an hour.

In its all-encompassing response to management's proposal, the Guild committee also reduced vacations for part-timers with at least one year of service to 10 days a year from a length-of-service scale that ranged from two weeks to five weeks, continued to ask for seven paid holidays for part-timers and reduced the number of teachers who would be eligible for company health care coverage by raising the number of hours needed to qualify to 20 hours a week from 17.

“We have moved significantly in a lot of areas,” Guild Rep Anthony Napoli told management. “I don't think we're all that far apart.”

NO PAY PROPOSAL FROM MANAGEMENTBut Dunn disagreed. “We don't think the proposal we got moves the needle anywhere near where it needs to be,” she said. “We are not willing to respond with a wage proposal given what we’ve seen today.”

Dunn replaced management negotiator Jay Kennedy after Kaplan’s parent company, the Washington Post Co., sold The Washington Post newspaper where Kennedy worked. The parent company said on Nov. 18 it would change its name to Graham Holdings Co., effective Nov. 29.

Management’s steadfast refusal to improve the pay and benefits of its teachers, 90 percent of whom work part time, provoked a rare outburst from the Guild’s usually composed counsel, Rich Corenthal.

“You have to step up and give them some basic benefits, some basic compensation,” Corenthal admonished the management bargaining team. “Stop being greedy.”

Management also refused to agree to use arbitration to resolve disputes over the appropriateness of work assignments or discipline, except for extreme cases where teachers have lost pay because they were suspended or fired. Similarly, Kaplan negotiators refused to agree to a joint teacher-management committee to determine how teachers should be evaluated, with Dunn calling the evaluations “a fundamental management right.”

On paid sick leave, management is still unwilling to do anything more for part-time teachers than the law requires. Beginning next April, New York City will require that all full-time and part-time employees accumulate one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours they work, up to a maximum of 40 hours per year, which could be carried over into the following year if they are not used.

“We have a business model,” said Dunn. “Most of these teachers are part-time by choice.”

Guild bargaining committee member Shana Dagenhart disagreed. “Kaplan has made a choice to keep the workforce part-time.”

The next bargaining session is scheduled for Dec. 5.

The Guild Bargaining Committee of Kaplan Teachers
Emily Lessem, Unit Chair
Michael Bennett
Jon Blanchette
Ben Bush
Shana Dagenhart
Jon Ellis

The Scabby Way

Meet our new mascot!

The Scabby Kaplan Way, equipped with everyone's favorite Screen Saver Power Amulet.

Coming soon to a New York street corner.

Why We Unionized - A message from Toronto

A Kaplan teacher from Toronto shared a message with us recently, one that we feel needs to be heard by more people. Here's what he told us when we asked why Toronto had decided to unionize in 2011:


        We unionised in Toronto because, Kaplan having bought out our family-owned school, we quickly saw the difference between a school which valued its teachers and one which did not. We unionised because our field has highly educated, trained and dedicated employees, a fact which Kaplan no doubt knows yet whose culture and practices attempt to deny. We unionised because this is not a transitory job and treating it as such is a disservice both to our students and the profession; because what we do is allowing others to live incredibly comfortable lives, and because there's no reason we should be willing to accept a sliver of the pie we’re baking. 

      We’re now into our third year of a signed collective agreement. We have a real salary, paid vacations, benefits, job security; in essence, signs of something a career might actually be made of. It wasn’t easy, and it’s not perfect now, but it is a wonderful start; and I’m convinced it’s far and away better than what would have been.

John Robertson
ESL Teacher, KPLI Toronto


(KPLI stands for Kaplan Pacific Language Institute, which is the name it gives to its ESL schools in Canada) hi lou

The Kaplan Teachers

Congratulations Micropower Teachers!

Congratulations to Micropower's teachers--both of English (ESL) and those in professional training--on their successful unionization vote over the weekend! Press release from New York State United Teachers (NYSUT) included below:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Teachers at Career School in Chelsea Vote Decisively for Union Representation

New York, NY – September 14, 2013 – Management response to Hurricane Sandy was the galvanizing moment for many teachers at the Manhattan branch of Micropower Career Institute. Despite a fierce union busting effort by the owners of this family-run proprietary school (Sam Hiranandey, President and Lalit Chabria, Vice-President), teachers made their desire for unionization clear as a strong majority voted for union representation in an election overseen by the National Labor Relations Board. 

The West 25th branch of Micropower markets ESL programs especially for students seeking visas for studying in the States, and offers Dental Assistant, Medical Assistant, and Computer Networking certificate programs. Tuition – which can run over $13,000 for some programs – isn’t cheap, but Micropower pays most of its teachers $15 to $18 per hour without any benefits, even for those who work full time (or more) hours. 

The owners’ profit margin became especially galling to many teachers after Hurricane Sandy when, despite not returning student’s tuition monies for the seven days the branch was closed, Micropower management refused to pay teachers for those days when school was not in session. A letter to management signed by about a third of the faculty which read in part, “…since most of New York’s educational institutions have acknowledged the efforts of their teachers by compensating them for lost wages, we the ESL faculty, appeal to the administration to acknowledge our contributions by compensating us for lost wages during the hurricane” was ignored and shortly thereafter teachers contacted organizers at New York State United Teachers for help with starting a union drive. 

Management retained the notorious anti-worker law firm of Jackson Lewis and aside from the typical barrage of letters sent to workers, management also made them sit through near daily group and one-on-one meetings, often directing teachers to leave their students with writing assignments during the two to three-hour-long meetings they were forced to attend. The Union filed close to half a dozen charges against management during the campaign for alleged violations of the National Labor Relations Act including illegal surveillance of employees, retaliation for union activity, and illegal transference of work. Despite all the pressure, workers voted 21-12 in favor of union representation. Now they will turn their focus to preparing for negotiations.


Contact: 
Daniel Esakoff or Julie Berman 
New York State United Teachers
organize@nysutmail.org 
Phone: 212-989-3470 Fax: 212-989-8154 

"I Want to Jump to $22 an Hour."

         Well, if being deemed unworthy of vacation time by our employers wasn't bad enough, now they're telling us that we should jump up and down for it. 

It's a social media publicity stunt called "Jump to Kaplan". Post pictures of yourself jumping on Instagram, write the words "I want to jump to <a city with a Kaplan>", insert the predetermined hashtags - you get the idea. Best jumper gets a seven day vacation. Obviously this marketing campaign's intended targets are prospective students, but for some reason the powers that be saw fit to give us the chance to participate.

"I want to jump to $22 an hour" one teacher joked, when hearings this.

We even get two hashtags to use, #jumptokaplan and #staffjumptokaplan. However, could they really not foreseen the irony in having employees jumping up and down for a chance to win what's really just a fundamental benefit, one that they've been deprived of? What's the next one going to be, post pictures of your worst injuries to win a trip to a doctor's office? (hashtag #JumptotheHospital). And let's not forget that since the "winning" teacher probably isn't going to have five unused vacation days to cash in during this trip either, PB & J and Ramen noodles will still probably be joining them in their travels.

All that said, teachers in NYC are actually excited to participate. Check out some submissions by 

instagrammer Jumptoabetterkaplan: 

                                                   

                                                        

Present Progressive No. 10 August 28th 2013

Kaplan makes small agreements but refuses teachers basic rights 

08/28/2013

After over a month lapse in negotiations, the Guild and Kaplan International Center’s (KIC) negotiating teams sat down at the table last Thursday to resume discussions on many of the outstanding proposals such as sick time, leaves of absence, safety and security, and bereavement leave. Despite reaching some tentative agreements at the session, KIC continued to repeat their mantra of “not interested” when it came to giving teachers basic rights.

PAY:

Although the Guild tried to reintroduce discussion about wages, KIC’s bargaining team stated they had “no change” and offered no counter-proposal despite our last wage proposal which came closer to meet KIC. At the July 18 session, we reached a tentative agreement with management: accepting their starting rate of $18 per hour for new hires and temporary employees. However, we only accepted this rate for the 6 month probationary period, after which the employee would jump to a higher pay rate. Although they “appreciated” this proposal which met them on their starting rate, they were unwilling to further discuss wages, a central issue for Guild members.

BEREAVEMENT LEAVE:

KIC continues to refuse to give part-timers paid bereavement leave – a standard in the Guild’s other contracts. In their proposal, they offer full-timers up to 5 days of paid bereavement leave for immediate family yet they won’t even offer a single day to part-time employees who make up more than 90% of their workforce.

SICK TIME:

After much back and forth about sick time in the last few sessions, KIC's last proposal offers a complicated system for accruing sick hours. After we discussed KIC's proposal at length during a caucus, we offered KIC a simple system of awarding 40 hours of sick time for part-timers and 48 hours for full-timers at the beginning of each year with no carryover in lieu of employees having to earn 1 hour of sick time for every 30 hours worked. This would be straightforward for the employee and would simplify Kaplan's record keeping of sick time. The management reps said they will get back to us.

SAFETY AND SECURITY:

The Guild and KIC reached a tentative agreement on the entirety of the Safety and Security Article which addresses workplace surveillance and drug testing.

We've come a long way from KIC's initial proposal which had both the right to install cameras everywhere except the bathroom and randomly drug test employees. KIC has now agreed to inform the Guild prior to installing any new surveillance equipment and new equipment will only be installed in the event of an investigation. Once the investigation has been completed, KIC has agreed to remove the surveillance equipment. A full agreement was also reached on KIC’s right to establish a drug testing program. If a program is to be implemented, KIC must negotiate with the Guild on the terms of the program, and employees could only be tested if there is reasonable suspicion. The program would also include an Employee Assistance Program and a period of time for employees who test positive for drugs or alcohol to correct the problem.

PERSONAL LEAVES OF ABSENCE:

The Guild agreed to KIC's proposal to continue with the 90 days leaves of absence for both full-timers and part-timers until they change their company-wide policy to 30 days leave provided that they include a clause which would allow managers to allow longer leaves at their discretion. This would allow employees to continue to take advantage of maybe the only benefit of working at Kaplan: the ability to take off extended periods of time.

STALLED PROGRESS:

Although both parties were able to come to some agreements across the table, KIC continues to skirt around the outstanding issues such as wages, vacation pay, holiday pay and health insurance. They also hold steadfast to several unreasonable, and even inhumane, positions as illustrated in their refusal to pay part-timers for bereavement leave. In addition, KIC has proposed an employee who is absent from work for three or more days without notifying KIC, will be deemed as voluntarily resigning on the fourth day of such an absence without recourse to the grievance and arbitration process. The Guild has brought to their attention that certain circumstances, such as hospitalization, might make it impossible for an employee to contact KIC but management did not seem to care. Not only would the employee lose their job, but because they “voluntarily resigned,” the employee would be ineligible for unemployment and the Guild would not be able to arbitrate the issue under management’s proposal.

We hope to hear more from KIC about some of the key items in the next bargaining session, scheduled for Friday, September 20, 2013.

____________________________________________________________

Corresponding update from Management:

POSITIVE TALKS, SOME PROGRESS

            In a bargaining session last Thursday, KIC and the Guild continued to make some progress in a few areas, and talks were professional and constructive.  We reached one more tentative agreement last week:  the parties agreed to a provision that KIC had proposed on “Safety and Security,” which allows KIC to take appropriate measures, in consultation with the Guild, to protect the safety and security of KIC’s employees and property.

On the economic front, KIC and the Guild have also made some limited progress:

Wages:   After much discussion, KIC and the Guild agreed in July to set the “contract minimum” rate for teaching hours at $18/hour.  That means that KIC can hire new teachers at that rate in the future, while preserving the right to pay teachers above that rate based on skills and experience.   The parties remain apart on other wage provisions, including the non-teaching prep time rate, which KIC has proposed to increase to $9/hour from the current $7.25/hour.  

Benefits:   The parties have spent a lot of time discussing benefits for part-time employees.  After KIC made a proposal in June to provide up to 15 hours of paid sick leave to certain part-time employees, New York City passed a new “Sick Time” law that will require employers in New York City, on or after April 1, 2014, to give part-time employees up to 40 hours of paid sick leave a year.  To ensure compliance with the new law, KIC modified its sick leave proposal to allow eligible part-time employees in New York City to earn up to 40 hours of paid sick leave a year when the law becomes effective; rather than reduce sick leave for its full-time employees, who now earn more than the new law requires, KIC has proposed to allow current full-time teachers to continue to earn up to six days of sick leave each year.

While we made some progress last week, several important topics still need to be addressed at the table, including important proposals on Management and Academic Rights, Grievance and Arbitration, and Access.  Over the course of several sessions, KIC has asked the Guild to make counter-proposals in these important areas, and we hope that they will be forthcoming at our next meeting scheduled for September 20.   As we told the Guild last week, we need to see movement on the important operational issues that impact KIC’s business and that inform the economics of a collective bargaining agreement with the Guild.

            KIC’s Bargaining Committee

Present Progressive Vol. 9 July 17th 2013

After students weigh in, Kaplan contract talks get more civil

07/17/2013

Students from around the world studying English at Kaplan International Centers in New York City signed petitions on July 3 in support of their Guild-represented ESL teachers, who are bargaining for basic benefits like paid sick leave, health care and paid vacations. The following day, the school closed for Independence Day, a day for which the students paid, but teachers were not paid.

Slight improvement on pay, sick leaves

With Kaplan students calling on company management to treat their teachers fairly, first-contract negotiations for Guild-represented ESL teachers took on a more civil tone on Monday and led to something that had been largely missing since the talks began almost eight months ago: actual bargaining.

BARGAINING UPDATE

While there were no breakthroughs, and the two sides are still apart on several issues, management representatives for Kaplan International Centers (KIC) engaged in give-and-take discussions with the Guild negotiators and even revised some of their proposals, albeit only to bring them into compliance with the law and/or current conditions.

It was a marked departure from most previous sessions in which the management reps asked almost no questions about Guild proposals, preferring instead to confer among themselves and then silently issue written responses. From the Guild’s perspective, the development is significant since only a robust exchange can enable the two sides to fully understand one another’s needs, a prerequisite to any fair settlement.

Five Kaplan students from abroad who are studying English as a second language came to Monday's session to express support for their teachers and to deliver a petition – signed by more than 425 ESL students at KIC's three New York facilities – that urged management to improve pay and basic benefits.

“Negotiating a contract with Kaplan teachers that includes sick days, health care and fair pay for prep time will benefit teachers and students alike and make Kaplan the great learning center it claims to be,” said the petition, which was addressed to Kaplan CEO David Jones. The petition was presented to Jay Kennedy, management’s chief negotiator. A copy will be sent to Jones.

KIC teachers in New York currently make the $7.25 an hour federal minimum wage to prepare for classes and about 90 percent of them get no paid sick leave or health care coverage because they are considered part-time employees.

‘NO TEACHERS … NO KAPLAN’Before the start of bargaining, the students briefly addressed the four management reps at the table, calling on them to improve their teachers’ pay and benefits. They also complained about the high fees they were charged and at least one said he would urge the agent in Brazil who connected him with Kaplan to stop referring students to the school until the teachers’ employment conditions improve.

“Kaplan exists only because of the teachers,” the Brazilian student said. “If there are no teachers, there is no Kaplan.”

“This company could be better,” a Ukrainian student told the managers. “You really have to change the treatment, the attitude toward the teachers.”

Most of the student petition signatures were collected at lively and conspicuous events outside two of the three KIC facilities in New York on July 3. Teachers, some dressed in Independence Day celebratory garb, discussed their struggle to improve their pay and benefits with students in a festive atmosphere a day before school closed for a holiday for which students paid, but teachers received no pay, as one student noted (pictured at right).

At the table on Monday, management improved its pay and sick leave proposals, at least to bring them in line with what recently enacted legislation will soon require.

-- Pay. Management negotiators raised their proposed hourly prep time rate to $9, which is where the New York State minimum wage will be at the end of 2015, from $8, which would have run afoul of the state’s minimum wage law at the end of next year. They also upped their starting rate for teaching to $18 an hour, the rate the company already pays, from the $17 they had previously proposed. The Guild accepted management’s $18 starting rate, but stuck to its prep time pay proposal of the greater of $13 or half of a teacher’s teaching rate.

-- Sick Leave. Management improved its paid sick leave offer to comply with a New York City law that takes effect next April. Beginning April 1,  full-time and part-time teachers would accumulate one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours they work, up to a maximum of 40 hours per year, which could be carried over into the following year if they are not used. Part-timers currently get no paid sick leave. Given the law’s 40-hour annual carryover allowance, the Guild proposed an 80-hour maximum of paid sick leave that could be used in a given year and also proposed allowing teachers to apply their sick leave in increments of as little as three hours, the duration of a typical class. The management negotiators said they would respond later.  Under management’s proposal, full-time teachers would continue to receive six sick days a year until April 1, when they would be transitioned to the new sick leave plan.

-- Leaves of Absence. Management improved its offer to worsen the current KIC leave of absence policy. The current KIC policy allows all teachers to take unpaid leaves of up to 90 days. Management wants the ability to reduce maximum leave terms to 30 days during the contract, which it says is consistent with a company-wide policy change that is in the works. Before Monday, management had wanted to exclude part-timers from eligibility for leaves. Under its revised proposal, however, part-time teachers could take up to 30 days, the same as full-timers, when the new company-wide policy takes effect.  The Guild proposed making the maximum leave period 45 days when the new policy kicks in. In the meantime, however, management proposed that all teachers remain eligible to request leaves of up to 90 days.  

-- Surveillance and Drug Testing. Progress wasmade on both fronts. Management originally wanted the right to subject all teachers to random drug testing, but has since agreed to limit testing to instanceswhere triggering events give rise to reasonable suspicion of substance abuse. Similarly, surveillance equipment could be installed in work areas only as part of an investigation following an event that triggers reasonable suspicion of wrongdoing. The Guild will have a counter proposals aimed at safeguarding employee rights on both of these issues for the next session.

-- Bulletin Board. Management agreed to install bulletin boards for Guild business at its facilities.

No further bargaining sessions were scheduled at Monday’s session.

The Guild Bargaining Committee of KIC Teachers

Emily Lessem, Unit Chair
Michael Bennett
Jon Blanchette
Ben Bush
Shana Dagenhart
Jon Ellis

Present Progresive No. 8 June 28th (& Management's update)

Barnyard epithet prompts Kaplan's dramatic exit at talks

         

06/27/2013

Kaplan membership meetings set for July 9

After stonewalling on key issues and dodging a discussion on pay, Kaplan management representatives injected a note of drama into contract talks on Wednesday by abruptly leaving the room when the Guild's lead negotiator tried to pin them down on their proposed duties for teachers by using, um, well, let's call it a barnyard epithet*.

Okay, the word he used was (hide the children) bullshit.

BARGAINING UPDATE

While it may not be ready for prime time, bullshit has clearly worked its way into quasi-acceptable usage over the years and is no stranger to contract negotiations.  Does anyone still find any shock value in it?

Apparently management lead negotiator Jay Kennedy does. “We’re gonna come back when you can control yourselves,” he said as he and his team got up to walk out.

WHAT TEACHERS CAN BE MADE TO DO
It was a dramatic way of diverting attention from the Guild's very serious effort to get company representatives off of their insistence that managers have the right to assign teachers to do anything under the sun with impunity (just use your imagination).

The Guild had counter-proposed that Kaplan International Centers (KIC) managers could assign their English teachers only to duties that teachers normally do. As we had already explained, that would include incidental functions, like cleaning blackboards, emptying trash cans and even assembling some furniture.

So, Guild Rep. Anthony Napoli asked the management side, exactly what other legitimate duties would our proposal stop you from assigning to KIC teachers? Kennedy, a Washington Post lawyer, turned the question over to Oliva Gautschi, the only real KIC manager on the team, which is otherwise made up of a Kaplan lawyer, a Jones Day lawyer and a flown-in human resources executive from California.

Gautschi said she had already provided examples of marginal duties for teachers, namely the duties the Guild had already accepted, and she appeared unwilling to cite any others. At that point, Napoli asked her to “stop the bullshit” and provide some examples. Cue dramatic exit.

Before the management sideshow, Guild bargaining committee member Shana Dagenhart asked management to clarify two points regarding its proposals on assigning work to teachers and on subcontracting. Kennedy ignored her. How professional was that?

So, we're still left with a management proposal that gives them the power to order teachers to walk up and down Fifth Avenue with sandwich board signs saying “Learn to speak English.” Wonder what the pay rate would be for that? And that's not all.

SCORTCHED EARTH SUBCONTRACTING RIGHTS
Another issue that arose before management’s sideshow was subcontracting. In a significant compromise, the Guild had proposed being able to challenge subcontracting only if it results in job loss. Management’s response, however, removed the Guild’s right to arbitrate, nullifying our ability to challenge layoffs or any changes made in employee duties as a result of subcontracting. In other words, management could subcontract away any or all of KIC’s ESL teaching operations – something it has never done before – and leave the entire Guild-represented workforce jobless and unable to challenge the move.

“We would not agree to language that would limit our ability to lay off our employees due to subcontracting,” said Kennedy.

WHAT ABOUT PAY?
Wednesday’s session began with management negotiators coming to the table without a response to a comprehensive pay proposal the Guild had previously made.

At a June 17 meeting, the Guild had lowered its proposed minimum rate for newly hired teachers on their trial periods to $19 an hour and the post-trial period rate to $22. Previously, the Guild had proposed $23 for both rates. We lowered all other pay rates by at least $1, including the proposed rate for class prep, grading and all other non-teaching work, which we cut to $13 (or half of a teacher’s teaching rate, whichever is greater).  And we offered to accept management’s “blended rate” formula for calculating overtime pay if management accepted our $13 non-teaching rate.

“We don’t have anything for you at this time,” Kennedy said on Wednesday.

WHO QUALIFIES FOR HEALTH CARE?
Also on Wednesday, management negotiators gave the Guild information we had requested on June 17 on the number of teachers averaging 30 hours or more per week, since only those teachers would be eligible for company-provided health care under the Affordable Care Act and management’s previous proposals.

Unfortunately, management’s information wasn’t adequate. It covered only the most recent one- and three-month time periods, instead of the six- and 12-month time periods for determining benefit eligibility under management’s proposal. Based on the limited information management provided, the number of teachers who worked more than 30 hours a week was 29 in the one-month period and 17 in the three-month period. We could only wonder how many teachers will make the list for the six- or 12-month time frames.

Given management’s non-response on our most recent pay proposal, its inadequate response to our health care eligibility information request and its earlier refusal to modify its extreme positions on work assignments and subcontracting, Guild negotiators let management know that we saw no point in continuing to meet on Wednesday after the management team had walked out of our session.

The next meeting is scheduled for July 15. Guild members are welcome to observe.

MEMBERSHIP MEETINGS SET
The Kaplan Guild unit has scheduled meetings for all Guild members on July 9 to discuss the situation at the bargaining table and possible responses. Members may attend either of two meetings at 2:30 p.m. or 5:30 p.m. at the Guild office, 1501Broadway, Suite 708, between 43^rd and 44^th Streets.

THE KAPLAN GUILD BARGAINING COMMITTEE

Emily Lessem (Unit Chair)
Michael Bennett
Jon Blanchette
Shana Dagenhart
Jon Ellis

*A word about bullshitThe word had a central role in a sideshow of American journalism history. While covering the farcical trial of the Chicago Seven, who were charged with conspiring to incite a riot at the 1968 Democratic convention, New York Times reporter J. Anthony Lukas quoted one of the defendants using the word to characterize a police officer's testimony. Times editors didn't think the newspaper of record was ready for such a word and wanted the story to say the defendant “uttered an obscenity.” Lukas was equally adamant in insisting that it wasn't an obscenity. Intense negotiations ensued. Finally, they agreed that the story would have the defendant uttering “a barnyard epithet,” which also worked its way into the title of Lukas' book about the trial. In the intervening 44 years, however, the word has gained wider acceptance and has even found its way onto the pages of The Times.

________________________________________________________________________________

Management's corresponding update:

Guild Quits For the Day

  

 Today’s bargaining session started out positively, with both KIC and the Guild making proposals, but ended when the Guild’s chief negotiator acted disrespectfully and profanely toward KIC’s Oliva Gautschi – gesturing at her and telling her to stop with her “bullshit” – while KIC was in the middle of making counterproposals to the Guild.   We understand that emotions can sometimes run high in labor negotiations.  But the Guild’s behavior today crossed the line.  We took a caucus, telling the Guild we were available to continue meeting today whenever the Guild’s chief negotiator was prepared to act more professionally toward KIC’s managers.  Rather than do that, the Guild decided to end bargaining for the day. 

This is an unfortunate turn of events, and one that brings us no closer to reaching an agreement.  We’ve tried to be professional and candid at the table about what KIC is willing to do, and what it is not willing to do.  For example, the Guild chief negotiator’s outburst today came in response to Oliva’s effort to explain KIC’s proposal for work assignment flexibility – a proposal that KIC has said, from the start, is of critical importance to KIC.  

                KIC never got to finish making its proposals today before the Guild refused to return to the table.  No new meetings have been set.

                KIC Bargaining Committee

Present Progressive No. 7 June 18th (& Management's Update)

On health care, Kaplan rejects a money-saving Guild proposal

         

06/18/2013

At Monday's bargaining session between Kaplan’s Guild-represented English teachers and company managers, one of the biggest sticking points was health insurance – who would be eligible for it and exactly what it would consist of.

Guild negotiators proposed a health care plan for all teachers, full-timers and the 90 percent of the staff considered part time, that would be cheaper than management's plan, not only for teachers but for Kaplan. Management promptly rejected it.

BARGAINING UPDATE

The Guild-proposed plan, priced specifically for the workforce at Kaplan International Centers (KIC) in New York, would offer participants access to the Blue Cross/Blue Shield network of doctors and hospitals, the largest such network in the country. One reason the plan is so inexpensive is that it would be underwritten by a non-profit entity, the United Furniture Workers, which is affiliated with the Guild's parent union, the Communications Workers of America. UFW plans are already widely used in CWA contracts, including some between the Guild and New York-based employers.

The Guild plan would be open to every employee who works at least 20 hours a week. It would carry a $500 deductible for individuals (as opposed the $2000 deductible for current full-time teachers). And even if KIC paid the entire premium, it would cost the company less than the 80 percent share of each full-time employee’s premium it currently pays. The plan is so much better than KIC’s current plan that Guild negotiators offered to make it available to managers and non-Guild employees too. No dice.

A COSTLIER MANAGEMENT MEDICAL PLAN Management negotiators had a proposal too. Theirs would simply do as the law requires. It would lower the minimum eligibility requirement from 37 hours a week to an average of 30 hours, determined retrospectively, for the current KIC plan – the exact minimum under the new Affordable Health Care Act. It was the least they could do, literally. As Guild Representative Anthony Napoli pointed out, “We don’t need to negotiate the law; the law is the law.”

Many teachers still would be excluded from coverage. Even part-timers lucky enough to have a core class and four days of specific skills or structured study classes would reach only 22 hours a week, meaning that experienced teachers with less than eight hours of prep time would not qualify.

Despite covering fewer teachers, offering less coverage and charging higher premiums, the plan that the managers proposed would cost KIC more – at a minimum, by more than $2000 per year per individual – than the Guild plan. That's right, Kaplan teachers and their union are offering to save the company money, but KIC managers won't hear of it. Are you getting this, Washington Post Co. shareholders?

'The fact that you guys want us to do more for part-timers doesn’t mean that we need to do that'

- KIC lead negotiator Jay Kennedy

Why did management reject the Guild's money-saving proposal? For one thing, management negotiators said they didn't know if the Guild plan would comply with the Affordable Health Care Act. Guild negotiators assured management it would. They even offered a provision in the new contract that would automatically switch employees over to the management plan if the Guild plan were found to be out of step with the new law. But that wasn't good enough.

Why else did management negotiators reject the Guild's plan? In a word, control. They said they're “not willing to give up control.” What that means is they want the legal right to increase premiums or cut back on coverage during the term of our contract. And they want that right even if the company they’re supposed to be representing has to pay more money.

STICKING IT TO PART-TIME TEACHERS
Besides health care, the Guild offered counter-proposals on salaries, vacation, sick leave and leaves of absence. In all areas, the Guild offered movement toward agreements. But management representatives had no comments or counterproposals on our salary or vacation proposals.

Most striking was their continued refusal to address important benefits for part-time teachers. In one case, they tried to make them worse. Management now wants to reduce leaves of absence to a maximum of 30 days from 90 days and deny them to part-timers entirely, even though many have used them. Management’s excuse: “There’s a benefit to having certainty in staffing.” What happened to “operational flexibility?” Further, lead negotiator Jay Kennedy said, “The fact that you guys want us to do more for part-timers doesn’t mean that we need to do that.”

With one of management’s lawyers texting for a good part of the bargaining session, Guild Bargaining Committee member Shana Dagenhart of Empire State Building mentioned how it’s difficult to see how “Kaplan Cares” is a true statement. KIC managers’ lack of care and concern for their workers might be best illustrated by their refusal to extend bereavement leave to part-time teachers.

The next bargaining session is scheduled for June 26 at the Guild's offices in Times Square at 1501 Broadway, Suite 708 at 10:30 a.m. All Guild members are welcome and encouraged to attend.

________________________________________________________
Corresponding Update from Management:

KIC Proposes Company-Sponsored Health Insurance Plan

 When KIC and the Guild last met for bargaining on May 7, they closed the day with commitments to address certain issues of importance to the other side:  KIC agreed to address health insurance benefits, and the Guild agreed to address KIC’s modified proposal on flexible work assignments.  In this week’s bargaining session, KIC met its commitment:  it opened with a proposal to provide full-time and part-time teachers averaging 30 paid hours a week with the same package of insurance benefits at the same cost – including medical, dental, prescription drug and other benefits – that all other full-time KIC employees at any KIC location receive. The Guild, however, didn’t live up to its commitment:  despite saying  it would come prepared this week to address work assignments, it made not one single proposal on that issue. That’s not the way to bargain in good faith to reach an agreement.

            KIC’s insurance proposal represented further movement on KIC’s part to address benefits for part-time teachers, following KIC’s offer at the last session to provide part-time teachers with up to 15 hours of paid sick leave a year.  KIC’s proposed insurance benefit program includes a wide array of benefits that are offered across all Washington Post Company divisions to provide stable, affordable and comprehensive insurance options to full-time and covered part-time employees. That includes medical insurance, prescription drug coverage, dental insurance, employee and dependent life insurance, accidental death and dismembership insurance, long term disability insurance, and wellness programs, among others.  In terms of benefits and premium cost-sharing, KIC offered to treat full-time and part-time teachers averaging 30 paid hours per week (meaning teaching time, prep time and all other paid time) in New York the same as all other full-time KIC managers, supervisors and employees under these programs.

In offering KIC teachers a large, sound, company-sponsored insurance program, KIC told the Guild it was not willing to put its employees in the insurance plan that the Guild proposed, the “United Furniture Workers Insurance Fund.” Fundamentally, at a time when employers’ obligations under the new insurance laws are undergoing dramatic change, KIC candidly told the Guild that it would not put its fate, and the fate of its employees, in the hands of a union-run insurance plan that gives employers no control over benefits, premiums or plan design, and that could expose KIC to increased costs and even penalties under the new insurance laws.

 While the Guild  thinks that the United Furniture Workers Insurance Fund is a good deal for KIC and its teachers, we could not disagree more strongly. Based on the Fund’s financial records, we are concerned about the Fund’s long-term stability and its significant liabilities – a red flag that the plan may have to increase premiums and/or change the plan’s benefits (which it could do unilaterally). In addition, the summary plan document that the Guild proposed provides for medical and drug coverage, but not dental, life, disability, and other coverages that KIC has offered. The Guild’s proposed insurance plan, moreover, includes a number of coverage limits that may not comply with the new federal law, like annual limits on the amounts of claims and exclusions of pre-existing conditions from coverage.  When we pointed out some of these issues to the Guild, the Guild’s negotiators suggested that the written plan description didn’t mean what it said – another red flag. There are just too many concerns about the Fund, particularly given the new insurance laws, for KIC to agree to rely on the Fund to provide insurance benefits to its employees and to depend on the Fund to satisfy KIC’s responsibilities under the insurance laws. 

            This week’s session ended unproductively, when the Guild said it had no more proposals to make – even though the Guild’s negotiators had promised a work assignment proposal “before the end of the day.”   Rather than do the hard and serious work of bargaining, the Guild, once again, wasted valuable table time with the same type of unconvincing rhetoric and tirades that have failed to advance the bargaining process. We hope for more a productive session next week, with serious discussion and serious proposals on the important issues that remain. 

            Bargaining committee

What's your hourly rate at Kaplan?

No, not your teaching rate. What you really make per hour.

A simple exercise: Take your earnings from a period and divide them by the number hours you worked during that period. Post below. Feel free to do so anonymously if you wish, of course.


*BONUS* Calculate your real raise last March:

1. Real Rate divided by Teach Rate. 
2. Multiply that by the % of your increase. 

All of Kaplan's Flyers

Our employer's previous attempts at "setting the record straight" All (17) of Kaplan International Center's anti-union flyers they distributed to us during their campaign. Take a trip down memory lane!

http://abetterkaplan.imgur.com/

Present Progressive No. 6 April 30th (& Management's Update)

Kaplan tells teachers:

‘Prepare to be insulted'

A seismic Guild move meets a management tremor

Guild negotiators last week took a substantial step toward Kaplan management’s economic position. Management’s response, however, could be measured with a micrometer.  

BARGAINING UPDATE

We lowered the rates for all three of our proposed teaching categories by $3, which cut our starting rate to $23 an hour. More importantly, we proposed for the first time a new lower rate for prep time and all other non-teaching duties of $14 an hour, or 50 percent of the applicable teaching rate, whichever is greater. This is major shift from our initial wage proposal, in which we wanted a single rate that would cover teaching and all other responsibilities.

At the April 22 bargaining session, we also proposed the Guild’s health insurance plan for both full-time and part-time teachers. This non-profit plan uses the Blue Cross and Blue Shield provider network, which makes more doctors and hospitals available to its users than any other insurance network in the country. And the plan’s rates are more affordable than Kaplan International Centers (KIC) currently offers full-time teachers.

After caucusing over our heavily revised economic package, management negotiators returned with their same wage proposal, but with one minor tweak: They upped their hourly prep rate to $8 from the $7.25 federal minimum wage we currently get. Their proposed starting rate for teaching is still $17 an hour, less than any New York KIC teacher makes.

After all the movement we made to our economic proposals, management came back with only a 75-cent increase in its prep rate. And that can hardly be viewed as movement since New York’s minimum wage will likely increase next year to $8.75. And let’s not forget that KIC raised its prep rate to $12 an hour in every city except New York not long after we voted for Guild representation last year.

We told management negotiators their $8 prep time rate was insulting, to which lead management negotiator Jay Kennedy replied, “Prepare to be insulted.”

Once again, management also neglected to offer sick time, holidays or vacations to the 90 percent of us who are part time. Nor did management address our proposals for experience-based pay increases. “We are not interested in paying someone for being here longer,” said Kennedy. Management only wants increases that would be at its discretion, which means no guaranteed raises.

The management negotiators repeated their mantra about how a contract would tie their hands, which has been their standard excuse for refusing to raise the current New York prep rates (which, as we pointed out, were raised significantly in other parts of the country due to our organizing). When pressed for examples of how the contract could end up tying management’s hands, Kennedy pointed to our unwillingness to accept language that would allow KIC to subcontract teaching work. Yet he could not produce any examples of any KIC school ever using sub-contractors. We also pointed out that the current rate of pay is not a livable wage and even full-time teachers need to work second jobs to make ends meet. Kennedy, however, insisted that Kaplan is paying a livable wage.

Since KIC refused to reasonably discuss wages and benefits, talks ended for the day. We hope that by our next session on May 7 management negotiators will have reviewed the Guild’s health care proposal and will be more open to actually negotiating a fair contract.

– The Guild Bargaining Committee

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Corresponding email update from management:

Setting the Record Straight After Another Day of Pointless Rhetoric and Little Progress

KIC and the Guild met for bargaining on April 22, 2013 for the first time in over a month.   Unfortunately, we made little progress in our negotiations.  This update will be lengthier than usual, because we think it’s important to give you the facts about the status of our bargaining with the Guild.

                “Contractual Minimum” and New Hire Rates

For much of last week’s session, the Guild persisted in mischaracterizing KIC’s opening wage proposal, arguing that KIC has proposed to “cut” teaching rates in New York.  Nothing could be further from the truth, and the Guild – which negotiates “contractual minimums” all the time – knows better.

KIC’s wage proposal includes a common and simple structure that provides for a “contractual minimum” teaching rate of $17/hour – the floor below which no new teacher can be hired or no teacher can be paid.  This “new hire” or “contract minimum” rate is based on market and occupational realities.  Here are the facts that we’ve repeatedly conveyed to the Guild about this rate:

·         KIC’s proposed new hire rate of $17/hour is simply a “minimum.”  That means, as KIC’s proposal explicitly states, that KIC can – and does – hire and pay teachers above this minimum rate based on their skills and experience.

·         KIC’s proposed new hire rate of $17/hour is in line with the rates that other ESL schools in New York pay their teachers.  In fact, we gave the Guild information showing that new hire rates for ESL teachers in New York range from $12 to $20 per hour, with $17/hour an often-quoted new hire rate. 

·         KIC’s proposed new hire rate is also consistent with what KIC pays new teachers elsewhere in the country.  Those rates vary from school to school, based on the markets where they operate, but KIC’s schools have new hire rates that range from $16 to $19.50/hour – averaging about $17.50/hour.

KIC has made clear to the Guild that this “contract minimum” has no impact on any current KIC teachers.  Most KIC teachers in New York are paid well above the $17 “minimum” rate – on average $21/hour – and KIC has proposed to continue paying current employees a teaching rate that is no less than the rate that they earn today.   KIC’s proposal also makes clear that KIC intends to continue paying merit increases to teachers based on their performance. 

                We understand that the Guild wants to guarantee unrealistically high rates for unit teachers, with lock-step guaranteed increases year after year that would fix teaching rates between $28.94/hour and $39.36/hour at the end of the contract.  But the Guild’s proposal is neither reasonable nor consistent with our ESL business.   Our business is not fixed or guaranteed, since student enrollment and classes fluctuate week to week.  Building unrealistically high pay rates into a multi-year labor contract is thus not a responsible business proposition.  Nor is it consistent with KIC’s commitment to rewarding teachers with merit pay based on their performance, rather than simply years in the job. 

  

                        Non-Teaching Rates

We thought we were poised for a little progress this week on non-teaching rates, after the Guild made a proposal acknowledging KIC’s long-standing pay arrangements for prep time and other non-teaching work.  KIC quickly responded with a proposal signaling its willingness to increase the prep time rate for New York teachers from the current minimum wage to $8.00 per hour.

Rather than respond constructively, the Guild profanely rejected KIC’s proposal – and then wasted the rest of the day complaining about what KIC has done for teachers outside New York.  We’ve repeatedly told the Guild why KIC did not unilaterally increase prep time rates for New York teachers when it increased those rates at other KIC locations outside of New York.   We want you to know what we have said to the Guild about that:

                First of all, KIC has a legal obligation to negotiate wages, including prep time and other non-teaching rates, for its New York teachers with the Guild as their bargaining representative.  KIC simply does not have the flexibility to roll out increases unilaterally for represented teachers in New York, unlike KIC teachers elsewhere.  Nor does it make sense for KIC to make that kind of an economic change unilaterally while the parties are at the table bargaining over the economic terms of a contract.

                Second, KIC has to consider any increases in teaching and non-teaching rates in the context of the costs and restrictions that the Guild wants to impose on KIC as part of an overall labor contract.   The Guild has insisted on things like limiting KIC’s rights to assign work flexibly, restricting KIC from subcontracting work where it makes sense, requiring KIC to conduct layoffs based on seniority rather than skills, and requiring KIC to provide significant paid time off and fully-paid benefits to all teachers.   Those types of proposals would add substantial costs to KIC’s operations in New York, and they thus have a direct impact on the wages that KIC will be willing to negotiate into a multi-year labor contract covering New York teachers.

Those are the realities of bargaining.  Bargaining a contract requires balancing the economic interests of both the employer and its employees – and wages, prep time rates, benefits and operational flexibility are all part of that economic balance.   It’s unproductive and misleading for the Guild to complain about KIC’s decision to increase prep rates at schools outside of New York, where KIC has the flexibility to act unilaterally, while KIC is currently at the table with the Guild to negotiate over precisely those issues for its teachers in New York.

                                                A Word About Pace

                At the last bargaining session, teachers on the committee expressed frustration with the pace of negotiations.  Since the parties began negotiations in November 2012, KIC and the Guild have met seven times for on-the-record bargaining.  We had certainly hoped for more progress toward a contract by now.  But bargaining is a bilateral process – requiring both parties to meet at reasonable times.  For our part, we’ve offered the Guild multiple dates for bargaining over the past six months, and we’ve been available whenever the Guild has asked to meet.  KIC has cancelled no sessions, and cut no sessions short.   And we’ve come to every meeting prepared to discuss and exchange contract proposals.  We can’t say the same thing about the Guild, which has, on more than one occasion, truncated valuable table time with wasteful theatrics and delay tactics.

The sooner the Guild abandons these diversions and focuses on the task at hand in New York, the sooner the parties will be able to find a path to an agreement that balances the interests of both KIC and its employees.   The parties are set to meet again on May 7, and we hope to see progress.

KIC’s Bargaining Committee