GUAM LEGISLATURE'S ANTI-COLLECTIVE BARGAINING ACTIONS

WHEREAS, the 13th Guam Legislature has recently passed, and the island's Governor has signed, the Fiscal Year 1976 Budget Bill for the territory; and

WHEREAS, this law contains "Administrative Guidelines" that effectively destroy the collective bargaining process for Guam's teachers and school bus drivers and quality education within the Guam public schools by:

Establishing class size ratios in excess of the maximums in the negotiated contract between the Guam Federation of Teachers and the Territorial Board of Education;

• Abolishing over twenty percent of the system's 1,300 teaching positions;

• Requiring librarians and counselors to act as substitute teachers;

• Establishing excessively long teacher and student days;

• Eliminating preparation periods;

• Eliminating the positions of School Health Counselors;

• Requiring school librarians to be on duty twelve months with no increase in pay;

• Eliminating personal leave;

• Eliminating overtime pay for school bus drivers; and

WHEREAS, in an obvious move to get rid of the union president (a driver education teacher) the legislature has transferred the entire driver education staff completely out of the public school system into the Department of Revenue and Taxation; and

WHEREAS, these and other "Administrative Guidelines" are in direct violation of the contracts negotiated by the Guam Federation of Teachers; and

WHEREAS, this action is unprecedented, particularly in this era when collective bargaining rights are being expanded rather than attenuated; and

WHEREAS, the island's government receives 100 percent of the U.S. income taxes paid there, in addition to federal grants and military spending:

RESOLVED, that the American Federation of Teachers send a representative from its Washington, D.C., office on an investigatory mission to Guam; and

RESOLVED, that a report of this mission be given to the AFT Executive Council, the AFL-CIO Executive Council, and members of the U.S. Congress; and

RESOLVED, that full AFT support be given for any actions recommended in the report.