Present Progressive No. 12 December 13 2013

Kaplan, school of hard noes, rejects whatever teachers ask

12/13/2013

Over and over at a Dec. 5 bargaining session, Kaplan negotiators said no to the marginal improvements in working conditions sought by a committee of Guild-represented English teachers.
On issues big and small, the answers were pretty much the same, no matter what the questions were. It was no to severance pay for layoffs (except those with less than a week’s notice), no to guaranteeing that probationary and temporary teachers would be laid off before any regular full- or part-timers, no to agreeing not to subcontract teaching work, no to arbitration rights on key issues and no to an “evergreen clause” that would keep the contract in effect after expiration during negotiations for a new one.

BARGAINING UPDATE

What about holiday pay for the 90 percent of Kaplan teachers who work part time?
“We have addressed holidays,” said Kaplan management lead negotiator Patricia Dunn.
“You said no,” replied Guild Rep. Anthony Napoli.
“That’s right,” said Dunn.
And so it went. Because of Kaplan’s just-say-no stance, its inability to provide much-needed information on health insurance and its refusal to respond to wage proposals the Guild made on Oct. 25, the session ended before lunch, with Guild negotiators demanding that management come back with health insurance information and a counterproposal on key economic issues – and noting that “no” is not a counterproposal.
No new bargaining date was set.

HEALTH CARE DATA STILL MISSING

Kaplan’s inability to provide key information about health care, which it blamed on its third party vendor, Augeo Benefits, is holding up the Guild’s consideration of management’s proposal that would provide a path to coverage for part-time employees who do not qualify for full-time insurance. Under its proposal, the company would provide a modest subsidy to part-time employees, which they could apply to their premiums after accessing public and private insurance exchanges through Augeo.

When pressed on why Augeo wasn’t providing the requested information, Kaplan legal counsel Stephanie Hart said, “It’s not like a real insurance company. They’re a clearing house.” 

Hart expressed frustration with Augeo’s inability to provide information for services employees will be legally required to sign up for by March. But Dunn reminded Guild negotiators, “We don’t have to do this, nor do we have to subsidize the medical plan.” She said Kaplan employees can go find their own insurance on the exchanges if they don’t like what Kaplan is offering.

SIX TECHNICAL, UNIMPORTANT COUNTERPROPOSALS

Negotiators for Kaplan International Colleges (KIC) offered six counterproposals to earlier Guild proposals, but they were mostly highly technical and of little significance. KIC is a substantial entity within Kaplan, which now comprises most of Graham Holdings Co. [NYSE: GHC], the successor to the Washington Post Co. following the company’s recent sale of The Washington Post newspaper.

One of KIC management’s counterproposals merely reinforced the existing right of both parties to pursue legal action through the courts or the National Labor Relations Board, as opposed to resolving disputes through the more efficient arbitration process, which the Guild prefers. Management has repeatedly refused to subject many key contract provisions to arbitration, instead wanting discretion to do whatever it wants while leaving Guild-represented teachers with only the cumbersome court system to dispute any breeches of the contract.

On layoff procedures, the Guild had proposed requiring that temporary and probationary workers be dismissed before regular part-time or full-time teachers. The Guild’s proposal also included severance pay for laid-off employees based on length of service. But in its counterproposal, Kaplan refused to guarantee that it would lay off temporary and probationary employees before other employees. It also provided no severance pay except in cases where a worker had been laid off with less than one week’s notice, in which case Kaplan would agree to provide one week’s pay. The layoffs in question are different than Kaplan’s routine cutting of classes at periods of low enrollment.

On determining which part-timers would qualify for company-provided health coverage under the new federal health care law, the company rejected a Guild proposal that there be joint agreement on nailing down a measuring period of weekly work hours that currently ranges from six to 12 months, demanding instead that management have the final say on the length of the measuring period.

The Guild Bargaining Committee of Kaplan Teachers

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