Comments an Insult to College Mediator

As a faculty member of the Ventura County Community College District and a member of the union negotiating team, I was both amused and enraged to read your editorial suggestion that “if the current mediator can’t get the two sides moving toward common ground, it’s time for a different mediator.”

As educated people know, a mediator cannot force anything. Please look up the differences between mediation and arbitration. Additionally, your comment is an insult to the hard-working, capable mediator assigned to these negotiations.

If the L.A. Times is so interested in resolving “the festering labor dispute,” why did it choose to print not a word about the marathon negotiations that took place in Ventura the week after Thanksgiving? Why did it not report that during that period the union gave up over $14 million (using district figures) in its contract proposal while the district moved less than 10% of that amount? Why did it not tell the public that during the marathon, the district made completely new proposals which were not part of its original position and which may be in a violation of good faith negotiations? Why does it tacitly support a district that gives administrators up to 15% raises plus liberal expense accounts and offers its faculty about 2%?

CHARLENE ARNOLD

Simi Valley