Members of the Pittsburgh teachers’ union Monday voted overwhelmingly to authorize its leaders to call a strike if negotiators are unable to reach a contract agreement with the school district. þþThe Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers announced the results of the strike authorization vote Monday night. The union voted 2,309 in favor and 144 against striking, as 94 percent of the union members voted in favor of the authorization.þþThe union’s executive board will decide how to proceed at a meeting Thursday, president Nina Esposito-Visgitis said. The next negotiation session with the district is scheduled for Friday. þþÿOur members do not take this vote lightly,ÿ Ms. Esposito-Visgitis said in a statement. ÿIt has been more than 40 years since the PFT has gone on strike. We want to be in the classroom with our students. This is clearly a demonstration that our members feel strongly about the items that we are still negotiating and want a contract that is good for students and fair to educators.ÿþþSchool board president Regina Holley said district officials recognize the hardship a strike would pose to students and the city. She said the district is continuing to work toward a resolution of contract issues.þþ“Nonetheless, a strike vote is out of our hands – it is the decision of the PFT and its membership. Ultimately, the ongoing negotiations between the PFT and the District will arrive at a resolution,” she said.þþ“When they do, I am confident that we will move forward together – teachers, administrators, parents, and community leaders – to work toward our common goal of the best possible education for our students.”þþIf union members vote for authorization, it does not necessarily mean a strike will occur. The union would have to give 48 hours of notice before striking.þþPittsburgh teachers haven’t gone on strike in more than 40 years. The last one lasted for eight weeks, from December 1975 to January 1976. The union last voted to authorize a strike in October 2007, but a walkout was averted when the union and district agreed on a contract.þþFive-year contracts for union members ran out June 30, 2015, and they've been working under the terms of a contract extension that ran out in June 2017. The Pittsburgh Public Schools board voted in November to accept an independent fact-finder's report on the future contract. The union rejected the fact-finder’s suggestions a day later. þþThe fact-finder suggested raises of 2 percent to early-childhood teachers and 10 percent for athletic coaches. The union wanted the early-childhood teachers on the school-age scale and a larger salary increase for coaches that wasn’t specified in its summary.þþUnion leaders also were upset that the fact-finder suggested granting scheduling power to school principals, rather than letting teachers set their own schedules. The union said that provision would result in “increasingly poor morale” for members.þþBut the arbitrator agreed that teachers should be able to transfer schools yearly, instead of every three years, as the district proposed.þþNotably, fact-finder report didn't address the union's desire to reduce class sizes, which the union has called among its most important issues.þþThe union represents 2,400 teachers, 565 paraprofessionals and 20 technical-clerical employees.þþMayor Bill Peduto rebuffed district leadership earlier this month after he said Superintendent Anthony Hamlet declined to meet with him, Ms. Esposito-Visgitis and Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald in an attempt to mediate negotiations and head off a work stoppage. In a statement at the time, Mr. Hamlet said he was advised by the district’s legal counsel to work in the proper channels with the state mediator. þþOn Thursday, Mr. Peduto said “there is no mayor in America that doesn’t get involved in potential labor strikes within the city.” þþ“So for the school to say ‘it’s none of your business, get out of here,’ is not an appropriate response,” he said. A teacher strike, he added, would be a “major disruption” for Pittsburgh. þþ“We are already getting involved in what that would look like for parents to be able to have their children somewhere,” the mayor said. “We don’t have the capacity to have 25,000 children put into daycare overnight. And without the cooperation of the superintendent it makes it difficult, but I’m still going to be doing my job.”þþHe encouraged PPS and the union to “get it done.”þþ“I have to negotiate with seven different unions,” Mr. Peduto said. “It’s difficult, I get it. But we get it done and we get it done without the drama. Let’s get back into the room and let’s get it done. And if you can’t do it, there are people in this town who can mediate this beyond a state mediator. I’m willing to still negotiate and bring people to the table and resources to the table that the superintendent and the union can’t bring. But I’m only willing to do it when I don’t have a door closed in my face.”þþMs. Holley insisted that the district is not trying to “shut out” the mayor on the subject. þþ“I want to be very clear that the board respects the mayor and the position of mayor for the City of Pittsburgh,” Ms. Holley said. “I think it’s critical for everyone to understand that. However, we do have a superintendent and his role is to manage and direct the school district, just as it is the mayor’s responsibility to manage and direct the city.”þþThe negotiating team for the school district — which includes lawyers hired specially to help with the contract, as well as board members and former human resources staffers — is working “diligently” with PFT and the state mediator to reach an agreement, Ms. Holley said. þþ“I don’t want to have a confrontation with the mayor but this is where we have to stop,” she said. “We have an organization that’s hired to do this job.”þþ“We need to make sure that this gets done, gets done correctly and we need to move forward to help our students,” she said. “And I think he wants the same thing.”
Source: post-gazette.com
