By Steve Gunn
EAGnews.org
    
SEWELL, N.J. – Teachers unions that don’t get their way have a tried-and-true tactic to gain public sympathy.
    
They rent out some empty building in town and open a “bargaining crisis headquarters.”
    
The Washington Township Education Association just opened such a facility, after three years without a new collective bargaining agreement.
    
Union officials say the strip-mall location provides a place where union members, taxpayers and other residents can come and “learn more about the situation,” according to NJ.com.
    
“It’s about communication,” Maryalice Smith, associate director of public relations for the New Jersey Education Association, told the website. “It’s a place to meet with the community, to get together, to organize and plan for our next step.”
    
They couldn’t do all of that at their normal union office?
    
The creation of a “crisis headquarters” means the union is trying to create a sense of crisis in the community. They want the public to believe that something is terribly wrong, and teachers are being horribly shortchanged, by the lack of a new contract.
    
The fact is that teachers are usually allowed to live off the generous terms of their expired contract until a new pact is approved, no matter how long that takes. That means Washington Township teachers are probably still getting their automatic step raises, low-cost health insurance and all the other perks they’ve grown accustomed to. They are definitely not in a state of crisis.
    
The part about “communication,” and allowing the public to “learn more about the situation,” must also be questioned.
    
As the news report states, “formal details of negotiations can’t be disclosed.” That means the public really has no way of learning more about the situation, at the crisis center or anywhere else.
    
There are obviously issues separating the union and the Washington Township school board, and they probably involve a large amount of taxpayer money.
     
How are residents supposed to make up their minds about who’s right, who’s wrong and who deserves what, if they aren’t allowed to know how each side is proposing to spend their tax dollars?
    
Here’s an idea. Why doesn’t the union shut down its silly “crisis headquarters” and put its cards on the table for the public to see?  How much more money, in terms of salary and benefits, is it trying to get for teachers? How much would that cost the district over the life of a new contract?
    
The “crisis headquarters” may offer free cookies and coffee, but only the honest details of union demands will help citizens form intelligent opinions about the lack of a new contract.