In It for the Long Haul

Photo by Dave Winans

In Pennsylvania's longest running contract dispute, a small local fights a battle for surrounding school districts.

There's been no love lost here in the west-central community of Somerset, home of the longest running teacher contract dispute in Keystone State history.

So contentious has been the four-year battle between the Somerset Area School Board and the Somerset Area Education Association (SAEA), that one school board member calls it "the moral equivalent of war."

And though it involves just 168 SAEA members, it's a "war" that's being keenly watched across the state and beyond, as its resolution could have a far-reaching impact.

At issue, not surprisingly, is teacher pay. For four years, and through three walkouts, the school board majority--including a landlord, a labor relations attorney, the owner of a metal fabricating firm, and a company comptroller--has fought to limit salaries. The board aims to budget no more for teacher pay in 2010 than it does in 2004.

Not that there's no money. The board freely acknowledges that there is, and has willingly shelled it out for school repairs and a $2 million school computerization project. But teacher salaries have remained frozen since 2000, taking up just $9.2 million of a $26 million school budget. Meanwhile, property taxes--a political hot potato--have remained low.

In the latest gesture, school officials offered SAEA's 12-teacher bargaining team a salary increase of no more than $1,000 for members at the top of the scale--and that would be tied to a health care "co-premium" that escalates out-of-pocket costs for family coverage from zero to $2,700 in three years.

One need only do the math, SAEA members say, to know there's no bargain there. And imagine, these educators say, what life is like for a new Somerset teacher who's been locked at Step 1--just $26,000--for five years, without district reimbursement for the college credits needed to attain permanent state certification.

The dispute has grabbed the attention of educators in surrounding districts, in part because health care co-premiums are so rare in this part of the state, where teacher salaries tend to be modest.

"We understand our district is being watched by everyone else in the area to see what will happen to health care," says SAEA President Jon Critchfield, a ninth-grade physical sciences teacher at the Somerset Area Junior High School. "If we cave in on health care here, the same thing will happen elsewhere in contract after contract."

"This is a flagship district," agrees Lonnie Luna, Ph.D., UniServ director for the Pennsylvania State Education Association (PSEA). "I have six locals up for bargaining in January, and they're all waiting to see what happens in Somerset." Other districts have already settled contracts--and quickly--"because they're afraid of what's happened here," he says.

So now, almost daily, PSEA affiliates from everywhere send messages of support or cash to this feisty little local. They're stirred, and encouraged, by Somerset teachers' battle to:

v Confront administration harassment. SAEA has paid the cost of pursuing numerous grievances that the school board refuses to settle, in hopes of bankrupting the local through arbitration fees. Donations have helped pay these fees, and messages of support have bolstered Somerset's teachers, who face electronic workplace surveillance and management intimidation.

SAEA Vice President Mary Critchfield, a ninth-grade English teacher at Somerset Area Junior High, reports that administrators personally visit teachers to try to undermine their confidence in the union.

v Speak out for quality in the classroom. The school board has cut teacher positions, pared down the curriculum, combined classes, and boosted class sizes. "Another teacher and I have 178 students in one study hall," says Jon Critchfield. "It's pack ?em deep and teach ?em cheap--we've lost top students and a lot of good teachers to other school systems." The bottom line, he says: The school board "doesn't care about education."

v Stay united. "The school board is astounded that this union hasn't caved in," says Critchfield. The secrets: constant communications, member education by PSEA UniServ staff, trust in the bargaining team, and belief in the cause. "We're past the point where we'll settle for nothing," Critchfield concludes. "We're not asking for too much and we've come too far."

--Dave Winans

FOR MORE, contact Jon Critchfield at jacritch@yahoo.com or Lonnie Luna at lluna@psea.org.