Students have sauntered through the halls and sat in the classrooms at Southfield High only to notice teachers wearing green “contract” buttons and all black clothing on specific days. This is to show unity and mourning for the fact that there has been no contract settlement for district employees, says Ted Peters, president of the Southfield Education Association.

Over the summer the district was supposed to come up with a new three-year contract for the Southfield Public School System, but due to disagreements between the administration and the unions, the district started school without contracts.

The unions have charged the administration with unfair labor practices. A hearing on the charges was scheduled for Oct. 14 in the Southfield Arbitration office in front of the Michigan Employee Relations Committee but has been postponed indefinitely

“We have no idea” when a ruling on the suits is expected, said science teacher Jane Teska, who is a teachers’ union representative.

Some of the disagreements include the union wanting contract extensions and no rollbacks in fringe benefits, which they claim was denied by administration.

Teska said the district hasn’t been meeting with the union to settle and because there are no contracts, teachers don’t know which rules to follow, so they follow the old contracts. She adds, “Teachers want to look at issues reasonably so that they can focus on teaching the students.”

Ted Peters, president of the Southfield Education Association, said the union is looking for fair and equal settlements from the Southfield Board of Education as it relates to wages, hours and working conditions. He said his members want a speedy resolution and that all bargaining units (teachers, secretaries, bus drivers and custodians) are working despite no contract, to preserve the education of the children.

Southfield Superintendent Cecil Rice said, “The Board of Education would like to have fair and equal contracts for all employees.” He said that union employees must have the flexibility within the contracts to meet mandates of state and federal law.

Rice emphasized that he is not asking employees to roll back salaries or fringe benefits and that he is trying to create a contract that will maintain the financial integrity of the district for the next 10 to 15 years, saying, “We will not spend more money than we bring in.”

Although there are many disagreements about the contracts, the one thing that everyone has agreed on is that there must be a resolution to the problem soon.