Teachers eager to move ahead with talks
NFT Leaders Cite Significant Sacrifices in Union’s Latest Offer, Including Steep Hike in Employee Health Insurance Premium Share
LANGHORNE, PA (November 8, 2012) — After welcoming students back to classes this week following Superstorm Sandy, teachers said they are looking forward to making progress toward a new contract as talks with the Neshaminy School Board negotiating team resume tonight.
“We are hopeful that our discussions will stay on track and keep focused on the framework that both sides have been working with for the past several weeks,” said Neshaminy Federation of Teachers president Louise Boyd.
As teachers prepared to resume bargaining, Boyd said, “the NFT wants to set the record straight on the current status of issues in the negotiations. We want our community to know about the substantial sacrifices that teachers have offered in recent talks.”
She and NFT vice president and bargaining team member Anne Schmidt stressed that teachers are part of the Neshaminy community—not just as teachers but as neighbors, friends, family members, and fellow parents.
“Many Neshaminy teachers grew up right here,” Schmidt said, “and Neshaminy schools are literally our schools. Many of our teachers are either Neshaminy alumni or have children in Neshaminy schools—or both. We care about our schools and their future. That’s why teachers have offered millions in sacrifices to reach a fair contract that also protects our school district’s financial health.”
Nearly a month ago, the NFT made a proposal that offers unprecedented sacrifices by teachers and addressed virtually every major objection the Board has raised, Schmidt said.
The compromises teachers have now put on the table include a sharp hike in employee health care premium contributions, plus other significant financial sacrifices such as forgone back pay and salary increases, she said. Teachers have also offered changes in their health plan that would save the District hundreds of thousands a year. Schmidt said, “We’ve met the Board’s demand to take health care coverage away from future retirees, and we’re asking current retirees to pay the same premium contributions current teachers will now pay. That is no small thing to ask seniors on a budget. These are hard choices for us, but we’ve offered these difficult compromises in order to try to meet the Board’s concerns and come closer to a contract both sides can accept.”
In response to the union’s proposal containing the massive health care compromises, two weeks ago the Board offered a partial proposal that appears to be a sharp break with progress that has been achieved over the last several weeks. At the time, NFT leaders expressed concern that the Board’s proposal represented “a step backwards in the bargaining process.”
Teachers and the NFT bargaining team said they remain concerned about language in the Board’s proposal that would eliminate class size limits and end the process followed successfully for decades of listening to teachers’ voices on educational decisions that affect the students in their classrooms.
“These are significant changes, and we’re concerned about their potential impact on Neshaminy children,” Boyd said. She added that the Board should be willing to discuss other changes it wants in scheduling and committee operations that would reduce administrative transparency and accountability, including the handling of student grades. “We know parents want to have confidence that grades earned by their children and given by teachers are not being changed,” Boyd said. “We will work hard to maintain this important guarantee of fairness in the process.”
Boyd said the response to last week’s devastating storm could offer guidance for the road ahead.
“Recovering from this storm is going to be a long process for our community,” she said. “But as the storm showed, we are all in this together, and we believe that if the Board will work together with us, we can bridge our remaining differences. Resolving this contract stalemate would take a big community concern off the table and allow all of us to devote our energies to moving forward.”
The devastation that Super Storm Sandy caused in New York is unimaginable. Our brothers and sisters up there need help!
Not surprisingly, AFT members along the Eastern Seaboard felt the impact of Hurricane Sandy—both professionally and personally. The storm and its aftermath highlighted the essential services provided by educators, state workers, healthcare professionals and other public employees. Many of these workers stepped up to help with the rescue and relief efforts. In some cases, these employees mounted heroic efforts in the face of very difficult circumstances.