Teachers Negotiations at Critical Stage
by Nancy Wood,
January 27, 2011, page 1.....

The teachers’ union and the CSSU negotiating team did not reach agreement at their January 20 meeting. The CSSU Boards said in a press release, “While the parties have reached a number of tentative agreements, including expanding an existing severance pay article to make it available to all CSSU teachers, the Association rejected the Board’s last offer and walked away from the negotiation table.” The Boards have set a deadline of Monday, January 31, for the teachers’ Association to accept the Board’s two year offer, or make a counter offer. “If the Board’s offer is not accepted, or if a reasonable counter proposal which the Board can accept is not received, the Board believes it has no other alternative but the exercise its statutory authority to impose a one year agreement and complete the process.”
Lisa Bisbee, Chief Negotiator for the Chittenden South Education Association, said in an e-mail on January 24, “The Association is concerned that the boards are changing the climate of the negotiations with their threat of imposition. On Thursday (January 20), both parties agreed that the teams were too entrenched to have any meaningful progress that night. We hope that the boards come back to the table and negotiate using the process that has worked for 40 years. Our Crisis Committee is meeting to decide on next steps. Certainly our negotiating team will meet as well in the coming days to decide how to respond to the boards’ threat. We hope they realize that imposing will only harm the process and the relationship between the boards and the teachers.”  
Two of the issues dividing the parties for the current year contract are salary increases and timing of an increase in the teachers’ contribution to health insurance. The boards have offered step-only increases that would amount to 2% new money (1.86% to fund the cost of step movement for eligible teachers; $300 one-time payment for teachers not eligible for step movement). The Association offer was to add steps to the salary schedule so all teachers receive step increases, which would amount to 3.11% new money. The boards and teachers agree to an increase in the health insurance contribution from 12% to 13% for the current year, but the Boards’ offer is retroactive to January 1, 2011, and the teachers are willing to start February 1. According to the Boards, “The difference between the Teachers’ association salary proposal and the Board’s position and the fact finder’s recommendation is approximately $300,000 for the first year across all schools (in the CSSU district).”
The Boards have also proposed no automatic pay increases (steps) when a contract is still being negotiated. Currently eligible teachers receive step increases even though a new contract has not been signed. The teachers have asked for an agency fee that would be levied on non-union members. The Boards’ last offer accepted an agency fee in year two if the Association would agree to no automatic pay increases. The Association rejected this compromise and withdrew its request for an agency fee, contingent on the Boards withdrawing their proposal on automatic step movement.
There are also differences over a year two agreement. The Boards have moved to an offer of a 3% increase in new money for salaries, favoring distribution to teachers not eligible for step movement in the prior year. Teachers are asking for 3% new money. The Boards are asking for the health insurance contribution to move up to 15% starting July 1, 2011, while the teachers want to hold firm at the first year increase to 13%.
The boards have included 2% new money in the budgets proposed for fiscal year 2012. If 3% new money is approved for the second year of the contract, reductions will be made in other areas, such as reductions in staff, increased class sizes and reductions in other services.