Cairo Association of Teachers - Newsletter

CAT Tracks for November 3, 2006 BATTLEGROUND GALATIA

A name most of you will remember from The Harrisburg Daily Register...

GEA says contract dispute is settled

By Brian DeNeal
Staff Writer

GALATIA - Galatia Board of Education attorney Barney R. Mundorf and Galatia Education Spokeswoman Linda Lemons were all smiles Sept. 5 as they announced a tentative contract agreement, reached with help from a federal mediator.

Though the agreement averted a teacher's strike, apparently the agreement was very tentative. Nearly two months later the board has not ratified the contract and now has filed an unfair labor practice charge against the union to compel the teachers to return to the bargaining table, according to a release from the board's attorney Barney R. Mundorf.

A prepared statement from Lemons indicates the teachers on Oct. 19 ratified the tentative agreement after all contract language changes were made.

"On Sept. 5, 2006, the Galatia Board of Education and the Galatia Education Association reached a mutual understanding through a tentative agreement with a Federal Mediator. The Galatia Education Association ratified this tentative agreement on Oct. 19, 2006, after all contract language changes were made.

"Since then the Galatia Board of Education has refused to act upon the tentative agreement," Lemons said, in the prepared release.

The board maintains the language changes have not been made.

"The Association's unilateral decision to cut off negotiations and its decision to ratify a contract that is not fully negotiated violates Illinois Educational Labor Relations Act. Therefore, the board was left with no alternative but to file an Unfair Labor Practice Charge against the association to compel the association to return to the bargaining table and complete negotiations," Mundorf said, in his prepared release on behalf of the board.

According to Mundorf, the language changes in question involve the number of allowable sick days for teachers who submit a two-year notice of retirement.

Mundorf said the board agreed to insert the granting up to 180 additional sick leave days to teachers who submit a two-year retirement notice into the contract because "it was legal to do so, it was fair to teachers who had earned over 180 days and were capped, and there was no cost for the district to put it in the contract," according to the release.

The original plan was thwarted, according to the board's statement, by the General Assembly.

Mundorf says a state law that became effective June 1, 2005, requires the school district to pay to the Illinois Teachers' Retirement System "a very substantial monetary penalty if a teacher is granted more than the normal annual allotment of sick leave days in any of his/her last four years of employment prior to retirement. These penalties are paid directly to TRS, not teachers, and therefore reduce the amount of future funds available for teacher salaries and benefits."

Mundorf said now it is against TRS regulations to offer more than 16 days of sick leave for every 180 days they work without paying the penalty to the TRS.

There are three language issues still on the table, according to the board: Sick leave, paid union leave and supplemental pay. The teachers believe the three issues are settled. According to Mundorf the GEA agreed it would not engage in further negotiations and "threatened to file an unfair labor practice charge against the board if it failed to ratify the partially negotiated agreement reached Sept. 5."