Taxpayers, families now see the union’s selfish reasons for recent six-week strike
Last October, when the Bethel Park Federation of Teachers began its six-week strike, a BPFT representative said that the union had “negotiated with the tough economic times in mind,” but the district’s “unreasonable demands” brought contract talks to a dead end.
The union’s final best offer, which was made public on Tuesday, tells a different story.
The union’s 47-page arbitration submission is laced with stipends, payouts and salary increases that not only ignore the new realities imposed by The Great Recession, but pretend that the go-go economy of the 1990’s has returned.
Among the big-money provisions found in the union’s final best offer:
-an increase in the “6th period stipend” (page 15);
-an increase to the curriculum writing stipend (pages 23-24);
-increases in tuition reimbursement for teachers (page 27);
-increases in sick and personal day payouts upon retirement (page 31);
-increases in the extra-curricular pay schedule (page 37);
-increased payments for “curriculum facilitators” (page 42);
-and an additional $2,000 in salary for employees who have achieved National Board Certification (page 44).
The union also proposes removing “satisfactory performance” and “most qualified” language from guidelines used when processing teacher transfer requests (page 25). The union wants seniority to be the primary consideration when assigning teacher transfers.
At the heart of the contract stalemate is the union’s resistance to increasing the teachers’ workday from 7.5 hours to a full eight-hour day. The union also wants two fewer days of classroom instruction for the upcoming school year than the district is proposing.
Bethel Park taxpayers and families should be indignant that the union closed down school for six weeks in part to protect their long list of stipends, payouts and salary increases.
The union’s “final best offer” cannot be taken seriously. It shows almost no understanding of the current economic climate. This document shows that the union is only concerned about its own, narrow self-interests, and not the interests of the district, taxpayers or the students.
