Gateway's teacher union considers strike during stalled negotiations

Gateway’s teacher union has authorized going on strike if it can’t come to an agreement with the school board and administration, its president said in a Feb. 23 news release.

The Gateway Education Association, comprising 266 teachers, counselors and nurses, voted to authorize the use of a strike at a Feb. 22 meeting.

GEA president Grant Sample said the union members have been working under an expired contract since July 1 and have been negotiating a successor agreement since January.

“The School Board seems to have no sense of urgency regarding these negotiations,” he said. “At this point in the negotiations, we should be much further along in the process. We understand that these are difficult times, but stalling the negotiations does nothing to move the district forward.”

A post on the GEA’s Facebook page said contract negotiations have been ongoing for 13 months and that there have been 15 negotiation sessions with the school board’s negotiation committee.

Sample works as a fifth grade teacher at Moss Side Middle School. He became GEA’s president two years ago and served as the association’s vice president four years prior.

The board’s negotiation committee consists of board president Brian Goppman, board member Mary Beth Cirucci and board member Rick McIntyre, who serves as the committee’s chair.

McIntyre said the board is negotiating in good faith and that he is surprised by the union’s vote to authorize a strike.

“I’m shocked that the GEA would threaten to strike when the district is working so hard to fully reopen the schools and after the GEA request to enter fact-finding was confirmed by the district,” he said.

The school code states that fact-finding cannot move forward between the period of notice to strike, which is 48 hours. The union has not given notice of a strike and a fact-finder hasn’t been appointed.

McIntyre said the board agreed to enter into a fact-finding process through the state Labor Relations Board during a school board executive session on Feb. 16.

He declined to offer specifics on the negotiation but summarized the holdup in one word.

“Money. Plain and simple,” he said, adding that the salary increases being asked for would “require a tax increase every year at the maximum amount allowed by law.”

“And even then we’d be well short of a balanced budget,” McIntyre said.

He said the union and the negotiations committee have not scheduled another session because he was under the impression that the fact-finding process had begun.

Sample said the negotiations are not all about money.

“Our key issues involve safety, the learning environment and the security of students,” he said. “It’s not just about the money. We are negotiating for the common good of all stakeholders.”

Sample acknowledged salaries and benefits are items being discussed but did not offer specifics. Asked if the union will strike, he said: “We are planning for the worst and hoping for the best. No one ever wants to go on strike. So again, we’re just hoping for the best.”

This is not the first time in recent years the union has voted to authorize a strike. Negotiations in 2018 came to a head when the union authorized the use of a strike. An agreement was ultimately met following the appointment of a fact finder by the Labor Relations Board in Harrisburg.