WASHINGTON, D.C. (Oct. 26, 2022) – The Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS) welcomed representatives from the Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) and the Overseas Federation of Teachers (OFT) to its Washington, DC headquarters yesterday to congratulate the parties on a pivotal tentative labor agreement. It is the parties’ first successor contract agreement in 28 years.
Representatives from both DoDEA and OFT were in attendance and were also joined online by others in their respective organizations, including American Federation of Teachers (AFT) President Randi Weingarten and DoDEA Director Thomas Brady. AFT is OFT’s parent organization.
“We would like to extend our congratulations to the parties on this momentous occasion,” FMCS Acting Director Greg Goldstein said. “Though FMCS cannot comment on the substance of their specific negotiations, FMCS was honored to assist the parties in coming to a resolution of their negotiations and successfully completing their collective bargaining agreement.”
The contract covering the Europe South school district represents the culmination of a long series of negotiations between the two parties. The district includes 16 DoDEA schools in Bahrain, Italy, Spain, and Turkey, and educates over 5,600 students with nearly 600 teachers making up the OFT bargaining unit.
FMCS Commissioner Kevin Wagner was invited by the parties in 2020 to assist with developing ground rules which were adopted in mid-2021, and he was subsequently invited to help mediate the parties’ collective bargaining process, ultimately resulting in the mutually acceptable resolution they achieved yesterday.
“These parties faced difficult and divisive issues,” said Wagner. “Through their determination, commitment, professionalism, and dedication to the process, they were able to overcome significant challenges and obstacles to find their path to a contract.”
(Oct. 25, 2022) Representatives from the Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) and Overseas Federation of Teachers (OFT) are congratulated on their recent tentative agreement by leaders from their organizations and the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS) at the FMCS headquarters in Washington, DC.