The Burlington Free Press (Vermont), May 15, 2006, Monday

Copyright 2006 The Burlington Free Press (Burlington, VT)
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The Burlington Free Press (Vermont)

May 15, 2006 Monday 01 Edition

SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 1A

HEADLINE: The 'strike-stopper' settles Vt. teacher disputes

BYLINE: Molly Walsh

BODY:
By Molly Walsh
Chalk up another victory for Ira Lobel.
Last week, the well-traveled lawyer from Albany, N.Y., cemented his reputation as a strike-stopper when he helped resolve the deep disagreement between 300 public school teachers in Bolton, Huntington, Jericho, Richmond and Underhill and the school boards of the Chittenden East Supervisory Union.
The six-day strike was the fourth teachers strike to erupt in Vermont in 12 months and the fourth to end only after Lobel was called in to mediate. How is it that two sides who could not agree for 14 months in Chittenden East found compromise when Lobel badgered them for a mere eight hours Tuesday night?
The graying, curly-haired negotiator is the first to say that he does not perform magic. In 35 years of resolving labor tiffs he has, however, developed good timing. This helps Lobel recognize when unbending opponents are ready to bend. The crisis of a strike like last week's, which threw 3,000 students out of school, has a way of helping people agree.
"When people have high stakes, they make hard decisions," Lobel said. "When people have low stakes, they don't make decisions."
Lobel won't say exactly what he charges, only that the going rate for his type of work is $800 to $1,500 a day. Typically, both sides in a labor agreement must agree to hire him. They split his fee.
Lobel is a free-lance mediator and arbitrator, having retired a few years ago from the independent federal agency that offers contract-resolution services to unions and employers. It was during Lobel's nearly three decades with the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service that he gained expertise by working dozens of contract talks involving Vermont teachers, municipal and hospital workers, and professors. Over time, he built a reputation as someone who could be fair to both sides and bring tired, cranky late-night talks to a close.
Jon Harris, a Mount Mansfield Union High teacher who led negotiations for the Green Mountain-NEA union in the Chittenden East strike, is impressed with Lobel. "He has a personality that's able to ask questions and ... I don't know ... work the room, so to speak, and do his job. He's an effective mediator."
Also satisfied with Lobel's work: James Massingham, superintendent of Chittenden East's nine schools.
"I think his history of being in these contentious situations and having a fair amount of success helps. I think he only says what we authorize him to say. He's very careful to understand our position so he doesn't misrepresent what our intent is, or was."
Blunt, then chatty
Lobel has two personalities. During negotiations he's blunt with his opinions, said Williston lawyer Anthony Lamb, who has watched Lobel in action at many contract negotiations.
"He's very direct. He's likely to tell you you're going to lose, so get over it," Lamb said.
Lobel softens his straight talk by cracking corny jokes and chatting on nonlabor topics.
"One of the things that he does do, he spends a lot of time just 'B.S.-ing' with people," Lamb said. "He does it in order to create relationships with people."
At Colchester's Hampton Inn on Tuesday, Chittenden East school board and teacher negotiators set up shop in separate rooms, as is common during contract negotiations. Lobel ping-ponged between the rooms, sometimes breaking into a jog as he ferried paperwork, proposals and ideas between the two parties.
Occasionally, he'd poke his head into a room and bark a name. A person would come out, and Lobel and the negotiator would have a quick, quiet conversation. Then, doors slammed as Lobel resumed his hotel shuttle diplomacy.
During lulls, Lobel struck up brief conversations in hallways with waiting reporters, reminiscing about past strikes or discussing television markets. He brought out leftover pizza for people waiting outside the conference rooms for word of a settlement. He'd also tell reporters whether he thought they had time to make a run to the store without missing a crucial announcement.
"Stay right there," Lobel commanded reporters late Tuesday night when a deal seemed close.
Lobel sees his approach as more finesse than straight talk.
"Obviously I have to use a great deal of tact and diplomacy, so to speak," he said. "I do a lot of what ifs. I do a lot of supposes. I do a lot of hypotheticals."
Miracle worker
or screw-up?
Once a settlement is reached, Lobel earns mixed reactions from the people who hire him, he said.
"It's anywhere from 'Ira, you're a miracle worker,' to 'Ira, you screwed us again,' to 'Ira, would you get out of here because we have work to do,' to absolutely ignoring me. It's a whole range of human emotions. Some of it is very gratifying and some of it is very annoying."
Lobel grew up in Albany and still lives in the area, in a suburb called Delmar. He graduated from Cornell University in 1970 with a degree in labor relations and earned his law degree at Catholic University in Washington, D.C. His wife is a public school teacher and so is one of his daughters. Ask him if he ever used mediating strategies on his own now-grown children and he laughs, saying, "You'll have to ask them."
Then he explains that he has no leg up in mediating family matters because he's emotionally invested -- a handicap. "When you're a mediator for yourself, when you've got a vested interest in the process, it's hard to negotiate."
Lobel stays fit for his marathon mediation sessions by exercising -- he bikes in the summer and in winter keeps a pair of cross-country skis at the ready in his car.
The federal mediation service was created under the 1947 Taft-Hartley Act to reduce strikes. When Lobel started working for the service in the 1970s, organized labor had a strong foothold in the U.S. economy, especially in manufacturing.
Many union jobs have since moved offshore and labor's influence has waned. National union membership declined from 20 percent of wage and salary workers in 1983 to 12 percent in 2005, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Ten percent of Vermont wage and salary workers are union members.
Still, unions such as the National Education Association retain clout, and in Vermont the run of strikes over the past year has generated political debate for and against the union's bargaining tactics.
In all four strikes, health care costs were a major issue -- an issue that is not going away, Lobel suggested. When it costs an employer $16,000 to provide family insurance, that creates problems.
"It's just a phenomenal cost," he said, "regardless of who pays for it."
Free Press Staff Writer Matt Sutkoski contributed to this story.
Contact Molly Walsh at 660-1874 or mwalsh@bfp.burlingtonfreepress.com