A state lawmaker has re-ignited a debate over banning teacher strikes in Pennsylvania with a new bill to prevent teachers from taking to the picket line.
Rep. Todd Rock, R-Franklin, unveiled the Strike-Free Education Act Tuesday at a Capitol news conference. It's the latest of several bills introduced to ban strikes in the past few years, and none of its predecessors have moved through the Legislature.
Rock's bill is backed mostly by conservative Republicans and a vocal statewide group called Stop Teacher Strikes Inc. Rep. Bev Mackereth, R-Spring Grove, is among 24 co-sponsors.
The bill is opposed by the Pennsylvania State Education Association, the state's largest teachers union.
Teachers in 14 districts statewide, including the Littlestown Area School District, went on strike during the 2006-07 school year.
Littlestown teachers went on strike for two weeks in October, and negotiations there continue in a labor dispute that centers on health care.
Last June, teachers and other professionals in the Lincoln Intermediate Unit went on strike for one day and later came to terms on a contract.
Mackereth said she signed onto Rock's bill because "education is way too important."
An ex-teacher and former member of the Waynesboro Area School Board, Rock said his bill is needed because Pennsylvania is a leading state for teacher strikes. At least 37 other states ban them.
"Why should Pennsylvania children be denied the same legal right to a strike-free education as children in 37 other states?" Rock said.
He also argued that the concept of a strike ban is supported by the state Constitution, which requires the Legislature to "provide for the maintenance and support of a thorough and efficient system of public education to serve the needs of the Commonwealth."
PSEA spokesman Wythe Keever said the bill is unnecessary because teachers don't take strikes lightly, and they would have no real leverage in contract talks without the right to strike.
"The overwhelming majority of collective bargaining agreements in Pennsylvania are successfully reached without strikes," Keever said.
Rock's bill would require school boards and teachers unions to begin negotiating Sept. 30 of the year before the contract expires and submit to non-binding arbitration if they can't agree on a new contract. Both contract proposals would have to be made public when arbitration begins.
The arbitrator's recommendation would also be made public, and town-hall meetings on the contract would be held every six weeks if an impasse ensues by June 30 of the year the contract expires.
Rock's arbitration language marks a key difference between his bill and another already pending from Senate Minority Leader Robert Mellow, D-Lackawanna. Mellow has been pushing a bill to ban teacher strikes and force school boards and unions into binding arbitration to settle stalemates.
Rock argued that his plan is better than binding arbitration because he does not want someone from outside the district deciding the matter, and public pressure should force the two sides to agree.
If enacted, Rock's plan would call for fines on teachers who strike. They would lose two days of pay for every day of an illegal strike.
PSEA believes the proposed fines are unfair to teachers because it would effectively mean they have to work without pay when making up strike days, Keever said. Pennsylvania is the only state that requires all strike days to be made up, he said.Labels: education online, financial aid, free college, scholarship, student loans, study abroad |
