Wyalusing teachers threaten strike

Aug. 28--On Thursday, the Wyalusing Area Education Association became the second Bradford County teachers union to threaten a strike for the upcoming school year, joining the Troy Area Education Association in having authorized a work stoppage in their respective districts.

The announcement comes after two and a half years of failed collective bargaining meetings, according to school board President Chad Salsman.

"We believe in that time frame you should be able to come to an agreement on a contract," said James Maria, an employee of the Pennsylvania State Education Association who is assigned to represent the Wyalusing Area School District from his office in Wilkes-Barre.

District Superintendent Dr. Chester Mummau released a statement Thursday after being informed of the strike authorization.

"It is unfortunate that the Wyalusing Area Education Association is thinking of striking as the taxpayers, through the school board, has a record of treating its teachers very well. Wyalusing teachers rank in first place for the amount of salary and benefits paid to its teachers compared to 20 other school districts in the region. In 2008, the district spent an average of $81,935 per teacher for salary and benefits. In 2013, the district spent an average of $109,483 per teacher," Mummau said.

The statement continued, "In light of the current economic times, the school board is being fiscally responsible by keeping future raises at less than 3 percent per annum, yet the WAEA wants more. It is my hope that the WAEA does not strike, causing a loss of instructional time, loss of sports and other extra-curricular experiences for students, and disruption for families. However, I believe our school board is committed to fiscal responsibility, as they should be. The school board has requested fact finding by the state to help the WAEA understand the financial limitations of the school district and to remind the union of how generous the board has been to them over the past decade," he said.

Salsman said the district has been unable to come to an agreement with the WAEA over an increase in salaries for teachers.

A press release from the WAEA states, "The educators feel (the) board does not value them or their work."

It goes on to accuse the board of continually "going backwards" in negotiations, but concludes, "We hope the board returns back to (the) bargaining table soon to get serious about reaching a new contract before Oct. 13."

Salsman said the two parties met Wednesday night for approximately four hours and discussed salary proposals.

According to Salsman, during the meeting the WAEA outlined the following salary increases for the school district's 92 teachers: 2013-2014, no increase; 2014-2015, $261,371 (3.75 percent); 2015-2016, $198,935 (2.75 percent); 2016-2017, $204,191 (2.75 percent); 2017-2018, $228,963 (3 percent).

He also said the school district's latest offer, which was proposed in the spring of this year, would allow for salary increases of: 2013-2014, no increase; 2014-2015, $171,478 (2.46 percent); 2015-2016, $175,702 (2.46 percent); 2016-2017, $180,030 (2.46 percent); 2017-2018, $184,466 (2.46 percent).

In total, the proposed increase from the union side represents an increase of $893,460 compared to the district's offer of $711,677, a difference of $180,783. The amount, although seemingly miniscule compared to the school's 2015-2016 budget of $22.3 million, can be deceiving, Salsman said.

"It's not just that amount," he explained. "The higher our payroll is, the more we pay for PSERS, workman's comp insurance and social security tax. There's a multiplier effect."

When school districts and teachers come to gridlock during negotiations, a neutral third party fact finder is often suggested as a way to end the dispute, an option the WAEA does not want to pursue.

"The WAEA is not interested in bringing in a third party to determine the future of teachers at Wyalusing," Maria said.

"There was some talk of a fact finder," he said, "We don't want to look to a fact finder. We want the board to be sincere at the negotiating table."

The union representative went on to say the decision to threaten a strike was not taken lightly by teachers.

"It's a remarkably big step, and one that we take with regret, but we find it necessary in order to make the district understand how serious we are with settling this contract," Maria said.

He said the WAEA is "not willing to wait until next year" to settle the contract and "cannot afford to waste time on fact finding when we need to sit down and resolve this issue."

Salsman said, "I'm surprised they voted to authorize the strike. We thought fact finding would break the log jam. It's interesting they want to skip that step."

Salsman said the district simply cannot afford to bear any additional increases in expenditures from what it has offered.

"Everything is on the table," he said, before adding that while the district is open to compromises in how money is spent, it simply cannot afford to increase spending without some type of concession from the other side of the table.

Over the last two and a half years, Salsman said the board has increased their offers over time, beginning with offers of less than two percent in salary increase and gradually reaching its current offer of 2.46 percent.

Likewise, the WAEA has stated it recently made a "major health care concession," which would save the district a "large amount" of money.

Salsman disputed the characterization of the health insurance agreement as a concession.

"They suggested it and we said OK," he explained. "The savings would not have offset the increase in salary."

He said the district did appreciate the health insurance proposal, which would change teachers from a PPO plan to a high deductible plan, but said the WAEA wanted the district to cover 100 percent of all future health insurance increases.

"We said that's an unfair burden to our taxpayers," Salsman said.

Salsman said the district currently offers its teachers 90 percent of their annual income as a bonus during retirement, which he described as an extremely lucrative bonus for teachers that is "unique" for a school in the area.

"It was meant to be an early retirement setup so they would retire earlier and make room for lower paid teachers," he explained. "The association didn't want to discuss negotiating or eliminating that."

If a strike does occur, Salsman said his message to students and parents is "This too shall pass."

"If there is a strike, the law only allows the union to strike a certain number of days. We still have to get in all the education days by June 30, so a strike can only last so long," he said. "And when the strike is concluded -- nothing happens -- we go back to the bargaining table."

When asked how common teachers' strikes have become in Pennsylvania, Maria said, "Unfortunately it is becoming more and more common. It's a result of tactics that school boards are employing in order to delay bargaining."

The first day of school for Wyalusing students is scheduled for Sept. 1.

Tim Zyla can be reached at (570) 265-1639; or email: [email protected].

___

(c)2015 The Daily Review (Towanda, Pa.)

Visit The Daily Review (Towanda, Pa.) at thedailyreview.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.