Monday, March 15, 2010

I Guess We'll See How Powerful RI Unions Really Are

ProJo:

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- A Superior Court judge ruled today that the East Providence School Committee "acted lawfully" when it unilaterally cut teachers' salaries and forced a 20 percent contribution to their health insurance costs last year.

Facing a deficit of more than $4 million, the board made the reductions in January 2009, saying it had to in order to comply with a state law that says school districts can't deficit spend.

The board's lawyers also argued that the committee was able to make the changes without the consent of the local teacher union because there wasn't a contract in effect for the almost 500 teachers. The last agreement expired on Oct. 31, 2008.

"... When the parties have reached an impasse in negotiations and their actions are not governed by a binding collective bargaining agreement, a committee can make unilateral changes when faced with an actual deficit," Judge Michael A. Silverstein said in his written decision.

Good thing leaving Rhode Island isn't very hard.

1 comment:

Leroy's Mom said...

As I'm hearing, it's working a little differently here in Calif. but is essentially the same. Unions unable to come to agreement with District and going to what we call "fact finding" (a form of arbitration) are finding a very hostile environment on the wage issues.