GNA union says board breached labor law

NANTICOKE – The Greater Nanticoke Area teachers union announced it will file an unfair labor practice complaint against the district, contending remarks by board member and district negotiating team chairman Bob Raineri violated the labor law.

Union lead negotiator Jane Brubaker said the complaint was based on The Times Leader article about last week’s school board meeting that reported Raineri said he wants to hold a public meeting with teachers to explain what the district has offered. Raineri said he will push for such a meeting if a contract is not agreed upon during the next negotiation session, scheduled for March 12.

Union President Barbara Zaborney sent a letter to the editor of the newspaper announcing the plan to file a complaint with the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board. The union contends the law clearly bars districts from bypassing the union negotiation team, and that such a move is divisive and interferes with the negotiating process.

Brubaker said the two sides are close to an agreement, with only health insurance and early retirement incentives remaining as chief stumbling blocks. “The fact-finding process brought us quite a bit closer.”

Union attorney John Audi said the union believes Raineri’s statement essentially says “If you don’t cave to what we want we will go around you and go directly to the union members.” When districts do that, they often divide the union members by appealing to some factions while short-changing others.

But Raineri said Thursday that he “was misquoted,” and that he had not sought a public meeting with teachers. He said he was talking about meeting with the public to detail the district’s offer. Since it would be a public meeting, Raineri added, teachers would be welcome, but he insisted he was not talking about arranging a meeting with teachers.

Even so, the union is unlikely to look kindly on any effort to release contract terms to the public before an agreement is reached. When the Lake-Lehman School District released its latest offer at a public meeting last October, the union declared the offer “illegal” and refused to negotiate for nearly four months.

Audi said the union sees Raineri’s comments as an attempt to coerce a settlement. “We won’t be bullied and pushed around. We will be at the table and have been at the table, and we’re not that far off from an agreement. There are only a couple issues left, and this is not the way to get an agreement.”

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Complaint claiming unfair negotiating practices will be filed against district.

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