Tut, Tut, Let’s Wait
This still is too early for some persons to consider the deal a triumph because both of the earlier agreements a between the union and District did not collapse until several days after the union leaders had accepted the terms.
As the frontpageonline.com reported on Wednesday, Mr. Mielke of the Teachers Union said “we accept” late Tuesday afternoon at the dinner hour.
Now Here’s the Deal
For teachers hired on or after July 1, they will qualify for capped retiree healthcare benefits after fifteen years of service in Culver City. The spouse will be eligible after the teacher has worked here for twenty years. At the present, the maximum amount available for one or both parties will be $3,207 per year. “That won’t buy anything,” Mr. Mielke sniffed. Sometime in the future, next year, several years or many years from now, new negotiating teams will attempt to reach accord on a figure greater than $3,207. But since no teacher household will even technically qualify until sometime in the 2020s at the earliest, they do have a window of time in which to dicker.
Cautious optimism is what both sides are feeling in the shaky days leading up to Tuesday, when an unknown number of the union’s 350 members will vote yea or nay on the contract. “I believe the teachers will ratify the agreement,” Asst. Supt. Patty Jaffe, the lead negotiator for the School District, told thefrontpageonline.com. How long will there be labor peace? “Hopefully forever,” she said. “There is no reason not to have peace.”
Not So Fast
Ahem, said Mr. Mielke of the Teachers Union. With fifty-two members of the School District’s employee team in line for raises next month — up from the sixteen persons whom the union identified — Mr. Mielke said he is prepared to be hard-nosed when the union returns to the bargaining table in the autumn. When School Board member Marla Wolkowitz returns next month from a family holiday, the Board is expected to finalize the small to gigantic increases for the fifty-two District employees. Mr. Mielke said he plans to average out those raises and use it as a bargaining tool. He said the percentage of increased pay for the fifty-two persons is the hike he is going to request for the Teachers Union.
Postscript
The School District has news for Mr. Mielke. If he intends to make hay of
the pending retroactive raises for the District’s fifty-two person management team, the District wants him to know the teacher pay boosts will cost $1.2 million while the management raises only will add up to $225,000.
