Brownsville teachers strike
BROWNSVILLE – Classes for approximately 2000 students in the Brownsville Area School District were canceled Monday as teachers took to the picket lines after negotiations with the district failed to produce a contract. Diana Michael, spokesperson for the Brownsville Education Association (BEA) said, although teachers would rather be in the classrooms, their overall morale is high.
“We are united. We want to be teaching. We want to get back into the classrooms, but we want a contract,” Michael said.
Teachers have been working without a contract since last year. They notified administration officials last week that they would strike after bargaining since January 2001. The union’s main sticking points in the talks are salaries, health care and early retirement incentives.
According to the district, the strike follows the union’s disapproval of two separate tentative agreements reached between the negotiating teams and the rejection of a “reasonable and competitive settlement.”
A statement released by the district through Solicitor Matt Hoffman last week outlined the last proposal rejected by the teachers, but the union has said the deadlock is because of details not outlined in the district’s statement.
“The reasons for the current contract impasse in the Brownsville Area School District can be found in what solicitor (Matt) Hoffman chose not to mention in his statement to the newspaper,” read a statement the BEA released Monday.
According Hoffman, the last proposal rejected by the teachers would have provided an average annual salary increase of $2,048 (or $10,240 over five years) and fully paid health insurance through the Select Blue managed care plan.
The BEA, through its written statement, addressed the proposal offered by the district.
“The board is demanding that district teachers give up the Blue Cross/Blue Shield medical insurance program that has been in effect in this district for well over 30 years,” the statement said.
“Brownsville Area teachers are currently the lowest paid teachers in Fayette County and must work 20 years before reaching full salary, longer than in any other school district in Fayette County. The board’s salary proposal would keep Brownsville Area teachers the lowest paid in the county, while requiring them to work the longest to reach full salary.”
Hoffman said Monday that switching health insurance carriers from Blue Cross/Blue Shield to Select Blue, which is offered through BC/BS, does not present a difference in the level of benefits teachers will receive. He said benefits under Select Blue are “equivalent and in some ways better than those provided under Blue Cross/Blue Shield.”
“The difference is not in the level of benefits, but in the delivery of benefits,” Hoffman said.
Hoffman said Select Blue insurance has been accepted in “many other school districts within Intermediate Unit 1 and (in school districts) across the state. He said Select Blue is “almost universal” in Allegheny County.
In reference to the salary issue and district teachers being the lowest paid in the county, Hoffman said statistics comparing salary schedules show the increase offered in the district’s proposal is “very competitive.”
“We believe our proposal offers a competitive salary increase, and in the end, provides for a competitive salary schedule,” Hoffman said.
But BEA representatives contend that average of the teachers’ salaries in Brownsville might not be the lowest due to the district having more teachers being paid at full salary than other schools in the district. The representaives claim Brownsville does have the lowest paid teachers in the county if individual salaries are compared.
The last proposal also offered an early-retirement incentive with a maximum package value of $33,200, including a $40/ per day payment for unused sick leave (with a maximum of 200 sick days) and a $300 monthly contribution toward health insurance costs for seven years.
About one-third of the district’s 150 teachers are eligible for early retirement.
Through its written statement, the BEA said, “In discussing the early retirement incentive package, (Hoffman) neglected to mention that the board has proposed new restrictions that would unreasonably deny the proposed incentive to teachers wishing to retire during certain years of the contract.”
Michael would not explain what the “proposed new restrictions” proposed with the early retirement incentive.
Hoffman said the proposed early retirement is a “true incentive” and under the proposal, teachers are required to retire “within a certain window of time depending on their years of experience.
“Basically the district is willing to increase the amount of benefits provided teachers retire sooner than later,” Hoffman said.
Hoffman said in the prior contract when a teacher received $100 monthly contribution toward health insurance costs to age 65, a lump sum payment of $6,000 and $17/per day payment for unused sick days when they retired.
According to the BEA, Hoffman also “chose not to mention” several other issues involving contract language that remain unresolved.
BEA representatives said they offered to begin negotiating “around-the-clock” in order to return to school as quickly as possible.
Hoffman said he will talk with the board to discuss dates for a meeting and schedule a negotiation session as soon as possible.