Teachers union OKs strike; talks continue

ROYERSFORD » The Spring-Ford Education Association teachers union announced June 18 its membership approved a strike authorization as contract talks continue with the school board. The two sides of the bargaining table planned to meet again Wednesday.

An “overwhelmingmajority,” or approximately 95 percent of the 420 union members present, approved the decision in the floor vote, said union President Zach Laurie. The union has 628 total members.

“Our membership feels we’ve come to a stand still in the bar- gaining process,” Laurie told Digital First Media Monday.

The move isn’t a guarantee a strike will happen, but it does allow the union’s leadership to make that decision if it thinks the action is needed, Laurie said.

Thenews comes less thanaweek after the first contract talks took place between the school board and the union in over twomonths, when the two sidesmet June 9. Until that point, there had been no discussions after March 30.

The two sides began talks last October, followed by a meeting in December and then one meeting a month through March. The union tried to schedule a negotiating session for April orMay, but wasn’t making any progress, said

Laurie.

Then several hundred union members began appearing at school board meetings, and shortly after the two sides agreed to meet June 9. Union members were also planning to attend the June 19 and 26 board meetings.

The school board’s chief negotiator, Jeffrey Sultanik, admitted this was the first he heard of a strike authorization vote being taken. He shared a different view of how talks started back up. There was no scheduling difficulty. The school board’s negotiating team felt it had simply exhausted the process and reached an impasse with the union. That’s when the team called him in and within two to threeweeks the June

9 session was scheduled.

At that meeting the school board’s offer hadn’t changed since the last time the two sides met, Laurie said.

“Basically the same offer in the past was made again,” Laurie said. “That’s the best they can do. Anything else will be lower.”

“The process is a process,” said school board President Joe Ciresi. “We had a meeting recently, the board representation and the union. We have another date scheduled to meet with them again.”

In fact, the two sides have agreed to meet three more times. The first session takes place June 21, then again July 10 and July 20. The union’s current contract expires Aug. 20.

Each side agreed to come to the table with new proposals moving forward, Sultanik said.

“The (Spring-Ford Edu-

cation) Association is submitting its proposal at the session this week,” he said. “The district hopes to have its position fully articulated by July 10.”

While neither side could offer any specifics about where the talkswere breaking down, Laurie did say that it “boiled down to salary and benefits.”

“We’re looking for movement,” he said. “Negotiating is a give and take.”

Sultanik, meanwhile, said the school board already told the union how much it is willing to spend on the cost of teacher contract negotiations. The union already knows the board’s position but “it just wants more dollars” and the board isn’t willing to do that.

“What was discussed unofficially would have been a very generous proposal for the teachers association and their members,” Sul- tanik said. “And I am not certain that the union leadership shared those numbers with its rank-and-file members when they met to obtain their purported strike authorization.”

In the end, it’s clear both sides want to avoid a strike.

“We’re committed to getting this done before the start of the new school year,” Laurie said. “Once we’re back the last two weeks of August, we want to be hyper focused on the kids. That’s why we’re there. We want this settled and want to go into this new year focused on the kids.”

“That’s what everyone’s goal is,” said Ciresi. “In this process everyone has to come to table. I respect what the union puts out there. We’re all here for the children and the community. We’re all working toward amutual agreement.”