PITTSBURGH (AP) - Gone are the days when teachers stayed on strike until their contracts were settled and school boards could raise taxes to fund the agreements.
Now, it's not uncommon for negotiations to go far beyond the expiration dates -- in some cases several years -- before a settlement is reached.
The reason: financial pressures on districts that include drops in state and federal funding, large hikes in pension contributions and state-imposed limits on raising taxes, coupled with a state law governing contract negotiations that has no real teeth.
In Shaler, where teachers walked off the job Tuesday, the union has been without a new contract since August 2011. Teachers have gone even longer without a contract in Bethel Park, where the previous pact expired in June 2010.
Two other districts in the state have negotiations dating back to 2010 -- Wyoming Area and Old Forge, both outside Scranton. Teachers in those districts also walked off their jobs Tuesday.
In addition, teachers in the Phoenixville Area School District, near Philadelphia, reached a settlement in mid-August after 31/2 years of negotiating, and the state's recent most long-standing contract dispute in the Neshaminy School District was settled in June after five years of negotiations and two strikes in 2012.
State Act 88, which took effect in 1992, requires striking teachers to return to the classrooms by deadlines that ensure students will get their state-mandated 180 days of education. According to the state Department of Education, Shaler teachers must return to the classroom Sept. 24.
The processes the law provides for settling disputes -- arbitration and fact finding -- are non-binding unless both parties agree at the outset.
"There is nothing that forces a finish," said Walter Michalski, a staff representative for the American Federation of Teachers Pennsylvania who participates in the Bethel Park negotiations.
Being one of the longest-standing unresolved teachers contracts in the state "is a record no one wants." But the alternative -- settling for a contract that doesn't provide the raises, health care and working conditions requested by the teachers -- is worse, Michalski said. Bethel Park teachers staged a six-week strike in the fall of 2010.
Union negotiators in Bethel Park and Shaler have been told their districts simply cannot afford their demands.
Shaler superintendent Wesley Shipley said Tuesday it would be irresponsible to negotiate a contract "that would totally deplete the district's fund balance." Salary, health care contributions and workload are the main sticking points in the Shaler negotiations.
The two sides met Wednesday night and made progress on health care issues, though there's "still some work to do on remaining issues," said Melissa Ravas, president of the Shaler Area Education Association. They'll meet again Monday, she said.
"You have the juxtaposed positions of the teacher associations arguing for industry parity and the districts arguing for local affordability," said Tom Templeton, assistant executive director for the Pennsylvania School Boards Association.
"I think boards are really going the extra mile to find that balance between local affordability and keeping an eye on the long-term fiscal health of the organization with a very uncertain future out there."
In recent years, state and federal funding to school districts has been reduced and raising local revenue is limited by state Act 1, which uses an annual index to determine how much each district can raise taxes without going to a voter referendum. At the same time, pension contributions, because of the more than $40 billion debt in the state pension system, increased this year from 12.36 percent to 16.93 percent and are scheduled for similar increases for years to come.
Templeton said school boards also are feeling increased pressure from their constituents who may be facing unemployment or underemployment in the sluggish economy.
"This all adds up to boards moving out onto the ice very conservatively," he said.
Since the enactment of Act 88, teacher strikes have not been as effective as a tool to settle a contract and have diminished in number. Wythe Keever, spokesman for the Pennsylvania State Education Association, said in the year before Act 88's enactment, there were 36 strikes across the state. After its enactment, there were an average of 5 to 10 annually until the past four years.
He said there were three strikes in 2010, one in 2011, one in 2012 and three this year.
Before Act 88, teachers could strike for as long as they wanted, could stop and restart a strike or strike at different buildings on different days, Keever said. He said teachers unions were more militant in the 1980s and early 1990s because they "had a lot of ground to make up" in getting teachers' wages up to a professional level.
"I think now they are just trying to maintain what they have and not lose ground," Keever said. "But we still want striking to remain a last resort. It is still a rare event and these three locals (currently striking) have shown a lot of restraint and patience."
Michalski said unions understand the financial constraints of school districts, particularly in light of the pension debt and the nearly $1 billion reduction in state funding experienced in 2011, when state officials chose not to use state funds to backfill for expired federal stimulus funding that had been used for basic education spending.
But, he said, if districts came up with other creative incentives in negotiations, contracts could be settled sooner.
"We've seen in other locals where they did give economic concessions for other concessions (from the district) that were worth something to the teaching staff," Michalski said.
In Bethel Park, teachers have not gotten raises nor moved up the salary scale since the contract expired in June 2010, he said.
"It's terribly crushing to those people," he said.
The district is currently in its second round of fact finding, which was requested by the district two weeks ago. The two sides also are still negotiating and were scheduled to meet Wednesday night and again Sept. 11.
Jim Buckheit, executive director of the Pennsylvania Association of School Administrators, said the cost of health insurance and a desire for teachers to contribute more is a major stumbling block in negotiations.
"I know a lot of districts are saying (to unions), we can either increase your contributions or reduce your coverage and then we may be able to give you a little pay increase," Buckheit said.
But union officials say there is no gain for their membership if health care contributions eat up salary increases.
Buckheit said if the Legislature addresses the pension debt this fall and provides some relief to districts, it could free up some funds to put toward teacher contracts. But Templeton, of the state School Boards Association, predicted that as long as the economy remains sluggish, government funding down and health care costs high, district officials will continue to hold the line.
"Boards really aren't on as strong of a footing as to what their future liabilities are going to be and that leads to a conservative approach to negotiations. That speaks to why the dance goes on," Templeton said.
Source: Philly.com
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