5M News

September 24, 2009

Northwest Area teachers accept mediator proposal

Mark Guydish

The Northwest Area teacher union approved a mediator proposal already accepted by the School Board, meaning a contract dispute that began in 2005 has finally come to an end, barring some unexpected rift before the deal is officially sealed.

The union issued the following pres release:

The Northwest Area Education Association met this morning to vote on the state’s mediator’s contract proposal to end the state’s longest teacher contract dispute.  The teachers voted “to accept” which ended five-years of contract negotiations between the two parties.  The school board voted and approved the contract deal last week.                 

“After 5 long years of negotiations the teachers voted this morning to accept the state mediator’s contract proposal. They understood the proposal didn’t include $1.8 million dollars of retroactivity pay, but they also understood this concession in negotiations would finally lead to labor peace, said Matt Gruenloh, PSEA chief negotiator for the Northwest Area teachers. “The teachers look forward to devoting their full attention to teaching since working under an expired 5 year contract came to a close this morning. Now, they hope that school board and the community will join them with focusing the resources and commitment necessary to provide every student with a great education,” said Gruenloh.       

Contract Details: The contract is 6 years in duration 2005-2011. Salary schedules will be increased by these percentages for each year of the tentative agreement: 2005-06   2.4%, 2006-07   2.4%, 2007-08   2.5%, 2008-09   2.9%, 2009-10   3.03%, 2010-11   2.3%.  Retroactivity is not included in the agreement.  Effective with the 2009-2010 school-year, all active bargaining unit members will pay 3% of premium or 1% of wages, whichever is less.  
 

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