First, by way of disclaimer, my wife is a teacher in the Scranton School District and accordingly is a member of the SFT. While that would have the tendency to make me pro-union, I'm really not, and in fact my wife isn't either. My view has always been that unions are what an organization gets when they fail to take care of the real needs of employees.
Anyway, the subject at hand is this: There is a meeting (which my wife is going to attend) on the 19th where SFT leadership will be talking to membership about the progress (or lack thereof) of contract negotiations with the Scranton School District. Everything I've heard is that things are not going well...and although no one really wants a strike, I think there is even money one will happen. From my wife's perspective (and probably that of many teachers), the single biggest issue is healthcare; my wife has insurance through the district for just herself...I have our children on my coverage from my employer. What she pays out-of-pay for single coverage is close to what I pay for myself and our children. When you compare what she pays to teachers in other area districts, it's even more stark: most teachers in the area don't pay anything. Now the current contract proposal by the District would significantly reduce out-of-pay premiums, however other out of pocket costs, such as co-pays, would increase. The net result, according to the information I've seen, is that the disparity would continue.
How the teachers and the district got into this pickel is something that could be debated, but I have two bottom line opinions on the whole situation:
The Scranton School District is not well managed. As an organization, it seems top-heavy, I question some of the districts priorities and I question the competence of at least some board members.
Prior SFT leadership clearly allowed themselves to be "sold a bill of goods" in the last contract negotiations. This creates more than an incentive for current SFT leadership to take an even harder line in this round of negotiations.
As is the case with most instances of school district labor-management strife, the ultimate losers will be the children if the two parties can't resolve their differences. Unfortunately I'm not all that optimistic at this stage.
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"Hope at least gives you the option of living" - Harry Nilsson
Ag ... this problem with the healthcare has been going on for much longer than you think ... it goes back more than the last contract ... it has been going on since Jacque Pethrick was the president of the SFT. He sold this bill of goods by telling everyone that they would get a percentage of the savings if we all moved to Access II coverage ... and for the first 2 years there were checks given out to all employees who made the move ... they were not big checks but they were checks non the less. We were believers ... the coverage wasn't bad ... less out of pocket expenses and a check ... oh we thought we had it made ... but then ... we started out paying a small amount of money for the benefits which grew bigger with each year ... and then when we began getting hit with the big bills a few years ago we all began to panic ... if things keep going at this rate there will be some employees in the SSD that will end up paying the district to work for them.
I do think that there will be a strike ... this will be a hell of a school year ... and if you look to the School Calendar you will see that the District anticipated this strike and built in many days for this possible strike.
School cannot be in session past June 30th by law ... so it looks to the average person that the teacher strike could only last for 9 days ... however there are many days that have been built into the schedule this year ... when did you ever see the Christmas Holiday go for 2 solid weeks? There are 6 work days this year not including the actual holiday ... so there are 6 days to add to strike time ... presidents weekend is Friday and Monday .... Memorial Day Weekend ... Friday and Monday ... Easter ... I won't go on and on ... I think that you all get the picture here ... the public thinks it can only go for 9 total days ... however it can last 3 or possibly 4 weeks ... The holidays would be lost ... but hell that sometimes happens because of snow.
The issue of Health Insurance must be dealt with ... imagine what it would be like if there were no union ... I shudder at the thought!
