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DALLAS — Dallas teachers will not go on strike next week.
They pushed back a potential strike date from Jan. 22 to March 5 even as a new union proposal was rejected by the school board Wednesday night.
The union asked the district for a health plan that would include no premium share or personal contributions from teachers. However, teachers were willing to change the plan design to include higher deductibles and co-pays, and change prescription plans as well.
“It was a flat-out no” from the board, said Michael Cherinka, president of the Dallas Education Association. “They didn’t even want to discuss it among themselves.”
The offer the school district presented Tuesday to the union gives teachers two health care plans to choose from. The first option is a plan which will not require teachers to pay a premium share, but will not have as many benefits. The second will have more benefits, but will include a premium share.
Cherinka said the plan the district offered last October was much better in terms of health benefits. That’s why the union could not agree to the current offer that the district is proposing. “They are participating in regressive bargaining at this point,” he said.
He also said the co-pays and deductibles would “double and triple in some cases” with both plans the district is offering.
“We keep trying to move towards their offer and they keep going in the other direction,” Cherinka said. “They’re not willing to come to the center.”
Vito DeLuca, solicitor for the Dallas School District, said the board rejected the union’s latest proposal because the district simply cannot afford it.
“Our funding is regressive,” he said in response to Cherinka’s remarks. “We need to get it through to them that there’s only a certain amount of money that we have that we can fund this endeavor.”
DeLuca also said to keep the current salary matrix for teachers, they will need to accept reduced benefit levels and pay a share of insurance premiums.
The district has given the union a deadline of Jan. 31 to officially accept or decline the offer. Another negotiation session will be held this month and two more in February if the teachers do not accept the current offer.