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Page 22 text:
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COUNTERPOINT After a long summer vacation anxious students had to endure another three days of vacation due to a teachers’ strike. The strike was a result of contract difficulties between the Whitehall-Coplay Education Association, the teachers’ bargaining unit, and the school board. Contract meetings had been convening long before the start of school, but these were fruitless. On August 25 the board submitted a new contract offer but it contained certain objectionable conditions. One such condition was the teacher tenure issue. The board’s proposal would have stripped teachers of their tenure rights. These rights are guaranteed under state law since 1937. No teacher who was interviewed was willing to give up that protection. Another stumbling block concerned union membership for department heads. All department heads would have had to relinquish membership in local, state, and national unions, since they were to be considered part of management. “The board felt it was doing the right thing,” said Eugene Perry, chief negotiator for the WCEA, “but in the opinions of the teachers the conditions were just intolerable.” After the contract was rejected, new proposals were heard September 5, the first scheduled day of school for teachers. Another meeting was held that night and there the strike was called. Nonetheless, students were asked to report for their first day. They were eventually sent home when the teachers stuck with their strike intentions. School remained closed for for the rest of the week. On September 10, an agreement was finally reached and schools opened on the 11th. The board ratified the two-year contract eleven days later by a 5-3 margin. The dissenting members were John Lener, Franklin Baer, and Eugene Polgar. As it turned out, the teachers were required to attend three in-service days at the end of the school term. Other provisions in the final contract contained new advantages for the faculty. Salary increases became applicable for over 200 teachers. The increments amounted to an average of $800 for the first contract year and $750 for the 1973-74 school year. An extracurricular salary schedule was established. Salaries of coaches and assistants were negotiated instead of solely settled by the board. A graduate tuition pool granted teachers $9,000 for the first year and $12,000 for the second to help meet higher education costs. The monies were distributed on a “first come, first served” basis. An additional emergency day was also granted raising the total to three. These days could be used for the following reasons: to receive an advanced degree, to attend a court case, to attend graduations of sons or daughters, and to attend funerals of family or close friends. Teachers indicated, for the most part, that they were pleased with the new contract. strike 18
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Page 23 text:
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Teachers’ strike gave students an extended summer vacation. For the faculty it meant making up three days at the end of the year. Some time was probably spent studying the use of the apostrophe. 19 strike
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