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Voting on the day the current contract expired, an “overwhelming majority” of the Wilkes-Barre Area teachers union approved a four-year contract during a Monday afternoon meeting, union President Jeff Ney said.
About two-thirds of the Wilkes-Barre Area Education Association’s membership attended the meeting, he said, and few took issue with the new deal, which includes automatic annual raises.
“With 550 members, obviously, there’s not going to be a total acceptance of a package because obviously everybody’s needs are different,” he said. “The association is very happy with the contract that was negotiated. I felt that the negotiations went as well as negotiations can go. … It was nice to see an increase bargained into this contract.”
The contract was approved by the school board last week. “It’s also nice to go back to school knowing we’ll have four years of labor peace. It’s a weight off people’s minds,” Ney said.
Approved after a year of negotiations, the new deal was crafted by a state mediator helping with the process. Another change in the contract is the cost of co-payments for doctor’s office visits, which increased from $5 to $7.