News
Buttoning Up For a Hot-Button Issue

Washington teachers brave the elements, win a 15-day strike for health care benefits.

They endured rain, wind, snow, and a resistant school board. But after a 15-day strike, members of the Hoquiam Teachers' Association in Washington state convinced the school district to pay its fair share--along with the state--of employee health benefits.

Before the strike, some teachers had paid as much as $497 monthly for benefits, while the school district paid virtually nothing.

Under the new two-year agreement, the district pays the total cost of health benefits for single employees. The contract, ratified December 10, increases the school district's health contribution to some $105,000 over two years.

[At press time, a few wrinkles remain. The district still was deducting money from employee paychecks to pay for health benefits, says HTA President Suzanne Hierholzer. The Washington Education Association is working with the district to clarify any misunderstanding of the agreement.]

The situation in Hoquiam reflects a nationwide problem when it comes to health benefits.

"Health care is definitely one of the hot-button issues," says Rod Regan, political programs director for WEA. "Costs are increasing and districts and the state are trying to pay less and shift the costs onto school employees."

Last year, insurance premiums increased by an average of 11 percent, far outpacing the rate of inflation (3.3 percent), according to the National Coalition on Healthcare Costs. The coalition estimates premiums will increase another 15 percent this year.

In Washington, state allocations for health benefits have not matched increasing insurance costs. Consequently, many school districts are passing the burden onto their employees.

"We're seeing the increase in health insurance costs really eat into the amount of salary teachers can take home," says Lynn Ohman, NEA's director of collective bargaining and member advocacy. "The school districts either have to put the cost back on the teachers in higher co-pays or take it out of the money allocated for salaries."

WEA is working with UniServ staff statewide to outline health care bargaining goals and to support local affiliates during their negotiations. The state Association also is comparing coverage between districts and between public schools and the private sector.

Other WEA local affiliates have received additional health care funding with little administrative resistance. Hoquiam is the only Washington local that has participated in an extended strike.

In some ways, though, the strike was inevitable. HTA's frustration with the school system had been building for about four years, Hierholzer says. Last year, Hoquiam's 124 teachers took the district to mediation to stop a move to take back "incentive hours" teachers earn for work outside the school day.

Because of the mediation process, the district ultimately dropped its takeback plan and agreed to provide an extra 20 minutes of elementary planning time per week.

But school officials this year refused to implement the extra time unless teachers accepted the district's initial contract, which did not include health care expenses, Hierholzer reports.

Teachers later discovered the district had an extra $400,000 for employee benefits that school officials had overlooked in a bookkeeping mistake.

The school district refused to use the money for health care and instead wanted to fund technology and maintenance needs, Hierholzer notes. Based on all of the issues, 92 percent of the membership voted to strike.

"The handwriting was clear and our members were not willing to put up with it, particularly when the district had the money and it was meant for teachers' compensation," Hierholzer says.

With the strike behind her, Hierholzer is looking ahead to the next negotiations. Although the new contract covers teachers for two years, Hierholzer expects that health benefits will decrease next year if insurance premiums increase.

In the meantime, she appreciates the support she and her colleagues receive from parents and WEA.

"Our people know how valuable the WEA is to each of them and how personally connected we are to it," Hierholzer concludes. "We are the WEA. I think that was a realization for many people. There was a real sense of pride in their professional Association."

--Kristen Loschert

Illinois Teachers Strike, Save Health Benefit

With rock-solid community support, 43 NEA teacher members in Sandoval, Illinois waged a successful 17-day strike in November and December--in snow, sleet, wind, and rain--for a decent contract. Their new three-year agreement calls for a 5 percent salary increase in each year, a 25 percent increase in employer-paid health care premiums, and no docked days for the strike.

Sandoval teachers chose to strike when, after months of bargaining and federal mediation, the district threw down the gauntlet. "The school superintendent was out of touch with the community," reports Illinois Education Association-IEA UniServ Director Judy Walker. "The district had more than a $1 million surplus in the education fund. Yet they tried to force these members to give up their fully employer-paid health insurance benefit as a precondition to settlement!"

Good News, Bad News

• They've done everything from "work to rule" to leaflet school open houses. And in late January, 80 members of the Mequon-Thiensville (Wisconsin) Education Association, backed by supporters, packed a school board meeting to demand a fair settlement in their 2001-03 contract negotiations.

  Like educators in more than 300 Wisconsin school districts, Mequon-Thiensville teachers have been without a contract since last June 30. Salaries have fallen behind inflation, and Wisconsin teachers have fallen behind the national average for the first time since 1978.

  The chief culprits: Wisconsin's Qualified Economic Offer law, which severely limits teachers' ability to bargain a fair contract; and state "revenue controls," which prevent school districts from raising the funds needed to maintain quality education.

• The state budget proposed by California Governor Gray Davis "does a good job of protecting education funding, which is critical to maintaining the momentum of school improvement," says California Teachers Association President Wayne Johnson.

  "Despite economic hard times," Johnson notes, "the governor is making students a top priority. He has increased funding for kindergarten through community colleges despite a $12 billion shortfall in the budget."

• The Colorado Education Association has joined an inter-union coalition to challenge Governor Bill Owens' ban of state employee payroll deductions for union dues and other personal contributions. The governor's order, which took effect November 1, circumvented the legislature, which had defeated many such payroll bills since the mid-1990s.

• In mid-January, the Nevada State Education Association organized a well-attended town hall discussion at Chaparral High School to focus on the education funding crisis in the state. "Currently, per pupil spending in Nevada is more than $1,000 below the national average, and that is unfair to our children and negatively impacts the economy of our state," NSEA President Terry Hickman told the crowd.

• Members of Baldwinsville (New York) Educational Support Professionals have bargained a three-year contract that boosts salaries by 4.65 percent in 2000-01 and 4.65 percent (5.2 percent for clericals) in each of the remaining years. Other gains: paid lunch for the clerical unit, longevity increases of 49 percent to 85 percent, and a 5 percent increase in summer school and extra duty pay.