Crucial court hearing on PFT-District dispute Wednesday morning

The District hopes the state court will take jurisdiction. The union won a victory Monday, with a local court ordering immediate arbitration.

A crucial hearing will occur Wednesday morning in Commonwealth Court in Harrisburg in the legal dispute between the School Reform Commission and the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers over the union contract.

The SRC on Oct. 6 nullified the PFT contract and unilaterally imposed changes in teachers' health benefits, saying that 21 months of negotiations had been unproductive and that it needed the savings to put resources back in schools.

At dispute Wednesday is which court is the proper venue for the case -- the local Common Pleas Court or the state Commonwealth Court.

The District took the case directly to Commonwealth Court, arguing that the Pennsylvania Department of Education should be a party to the case, making it a state matter.

The union filed a motion last week arguing that PDE has no place in the dispute and asking that the case be sent to Common Pleas Court.

That motion will be argued at 9:30 a.m. in Harrisburg. The PFT successfully argued for an expedited hearing of the matter.

The PFT won the first victory in what may become a long, bitter case by filing motions in Common Pleas Court and getting Judge Nina Wright Padilla on Monday to grant a temporary injunction preventing the SRC from making changes to benefits plans "until further order of this court."

She also ordered an "expedited labor arbitration" to take place and be completed within 60 days. The District had planned for the benefits changes to take effect on Dec. 15, but that would seem improbable if Judge Padilla's ruling stands.

The District plans to appeal her Monday order to Commonwealth Court, but District spokesman Fernando Gallard said that he could not say when that appeal would be filed. The District could also request a stay on Judge Padilla's order, delaying arbitration until its appeal is heard.

Wednesday's Commonwealth Court hearing is focused on whether that court has jurisdiction and does not concern the Common Pleas Court ruling.

At least one local legal expert, Michael Churchill of the Public Interest Law Center of Philadelphia, said that Judge Padilla's decision to order arbitration was an important one and goes to the heart of the PFT's case that the dispute should be handled as a labor relations issue. The District wants the higher court to decide the merits and skip the arbitration process, arguing that negotiations are at an impasse.

“The decision to send it to arbitration is a significant victory for the union," Churchill said. "This does not appear to just be a stay until the court reaches the next stage, but this is the merits of what the union sought, based on the arbitration provision in the collective bargaining agreement.”

Source: The Notebook

Here is a copy of Judge Padilla's Monday ruling:

 


Preliminary Injunction Order