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For the first time in six years, the union declares an impasse, which automatically halts contract negotiations.
By BARBARA BEHRENDT, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times, published January 31, 2003
INVERNESS -- The union that represents Citrus County's public school teachers, frustrated by what it considers an unacceptable pay raise proposal and upset with the administration team that has offered it, did something Thursday that it has not done since 1997: declare an impasse.
The move automatically halted contract negotiations for teachers, who have worked this school year without a new pay deal. The union and administration now head to mediation.
Even in the standard back-and-forth world of Citrus teachers' contract negotiations, the declaration Thursday was unusual. It was inspired by the union's general belief that the administration is being less than forthright about its financial ability to satisfy teachers' requests -- or at least tender an offer that is closer to what the union seeks.
"We feel and we know that there is enough money there to fulfill this proposal," Pat Allen, chief union negotiator, told administrators.
The primary sticking point concerns how to partially remedy a salary inequity.
For the past few years, the school district has capped the amount of experience a teacher could claim for salary purposes at five years.
This month, a change in the law requires school districts to recognize all the experience of all teachers entering the system. But it left up to local districts how to deal with those previously hired while the cap was in place.
Administrators insist the cost of helping teachers who lose pay because of the former five-year cap must come from the same pool of money available for teacher raises.
Administrators have offered $1.7-million total for monetary issues: pay raises, benefits and the cost of correcting part of the inequity.
The union, whose formal name is the Citrus County Education Association, represents about 1,100 teachers. It opened Thursday's bargaining session insisting that the cost of fixing part of the experience cap inequity -- about $354,000 -- should come from some other fund.
It also proposed pay raises ranging from $1,000 to $2,077, for a total salary cost -- not including benefits -- of $1.7-million.
Allen reminded administrators that the union's budget analysis showed where the district could find additional money for teachers. The money was found in budget line items where money traditionally isn't all spent.
Administrators say the budget analysis is flawed and they have refused to significantly alter their spending parameters.
The administration team spent three hours Thursday reviewing the union proposal. They returned and presented a proposal that included pay raises ranging from $1,000 to $1,477, totaling $1.4-million, and the $354,000 for fixing the experience cap inequity out of the same fund for a total of just under $1.8-million.
Teachers took 10 minutes for a private caucus, then called the administrative team back into the room.
"We reject your counterproposal," Allen told administrators. "We refuse to fund the removal of the five-year cap with money put on the table for salaries. Therefore, at this point, we are declaring impasse."
Chief administration negotiator Ed Murphy ended the session asking union officials to let him know the details of mediation.
"I think the administrative team has made a good-faith effort to work with them to iron out the money concerns that are out there," Murphy said after the meeting.
The teams agreed on one point: an administration proposal to increase the district's contribution toward teachers' health insurance premiums from $120 per month to $150 per month beginning July 1.
"We're happy that they've been willing to work with us on the insurance issue, but the downside is that we have not been able to fully work out the cap money issue, and that is a disappointment. Still, I feel that in the process of mediation we will be able to work that out," he said.
After an impasse is declared, a mediator is scheduled to meet with the teams in both public joint sessions and individual private sessions. If both sides agree, the unresolved issues can also be jointly presented to the School Board for a final decision without mediation.
It has been six years since the teachers declared an impasse. Mediation eventually helped settle that contract.
Four years earlier, mediation failed and the union was forced to make its pitch to the School Board directly. The board imposed a contract on the union. Negotiations with the district's other two employee groups are ongoing. But the support employees, also represented by the Citrus County Education Association, have raised issues similar to the teachers'.
They are slated to return to the bargaining table on Wednesday.
-- Barbara Behrendt can be reached at behrendt@sptimes.com or 564-3621.