According to a recent article in the Chicago Tribune, regional contract negotiations between labor unions and District 25 are feeling the effects of the recent partial government shutdown.  The federal workers who normally handle the processing and mediation process, including the mediators, are among the laid-off workers, thus stalling further negotiations. 

A case that was to be mediated this week between the Arlington Heights School District 25 and the Arlington Teachers' Association has now been cancelled until further notice.  David Page, the president of the Arlington School Board, stated in an email that “we won't have the federal mediator to run our negotiation, so the meeting will have to be rescheduled after he gets back to work."

Arlington School District has approximately 485 teachers and 5,100 students, and has been in negotiations with the Arlington Teachers’ Association since March.  Since the mediator chosen to assist with negotiations is a federal mediator, and mediation provided would have been free of charge to the school district that is already struggling financially, both sides will be forced to hire a local mediator if they cannot wait for the partial shutdown to be resolved by Congress.

Going with the mediator from the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, a mediation program that works with approximately 14,000 cases annually, would save the district nearly $1,000 per day in private sector mediation costs.  However, labor disputes are volatile, and in most cases, resolving them sooner rather than later is in both sides’ best interest.