Neshaminy teachers get June 15 deadline to end strike

Striking Neshaminy teachers must return to work by June 15, and they face losing several days' pay if they stay out till then, district officials said Wednesday.

"The main point is, we want school to start," district lawyer Charles Sweet said, as members of the Neshaminy Federation of Teachers picketed outside schools for the third day.

Resuming classes by the state-ordered deadline will provide the district's 7,000 students with the required 180 school days by June 29, Sweet said.

But if the teachers stay out until June 15, they won't have enough time to complete their contracted 188.5 days, school board President Ritchie Webb said.

"Some will lose as much as four- to five-days' pay, others more," Webb said. "It varies, depending on the position."

Members of the NFT, representing 633 teachers, guidance counselors, librarians and nurses, "went into this knowing some wages were in jeopardy," union Vice President Anne Schmidt said.

They could lose three- to five-days' pay, she said.

The union has been working under an expired contract for nearly four years, in what is the longest current impasse in the state. Members have not gotten a raise since 2008, but have received benefits that the board says it can no longer afford, such as health care without contributions and a $27,500 retirement incentive with full insurance coverage.

Meanwhile, the district pulled its offer, including 1 percent raises this year and the next two years, off the table Tuesday, as it has done each spring since 2009, Sweet said.

"After 4½ years of bargaining, the board could get tougher, but that won't get a settlement," he said.

Pulling the offer "gives the board the opportunity to work out something else," Webb said. "The economy is not getting any better."

Each year, the board repeats its position that it cannot pay retroactive raises for time worked and education credits earned, Webb said. The union's demand of 80 percent retroactive pay would cost the district about $14 million this year, he said.

"I don't know what to make of it," Schmidt said of the district's move.

The union's proposal also includes annual wage increases of 1 percent to 3.25 percent from last year through the 2013-14 school year, and a reduction in the retirement incentive.  The teachers have offered to pay 8 percent of the first-year health insurance premiums each year, compared to the district's proposed 15 percent per year.

Both sides were notified of the June 15 deadline Tuesday by the state Department of Education.  Kindergarten teachers must return by June 14, Schmidt said.

The union's lawyers were reviewing the department's directive, she said.

The department is preparing to seek an injunction in Bucks County Court to ensure that classes resume by June 15, Sweet said, even if the union agrees to return. The court would schedule a hearing before that date if the union rejected the department's findings, he said.

The department also called for a non-binding arbitration after the strike, as was done after the union's eight-day strike in January. The school board unanimously rejected the independent arbitrator's recommendations last month, putting the cost at $20 million. The union approved the recommendations "with reservations."

Sweet, who has negotiated teachers' contracts for 46 years, said he has never been involved in two strikes in one year.  Act 88, the law that provides for teachers' strikes, was enacted in 1992, and its requirement for arbitrations is unclear, he said.

Union President Louise Boyd has welcomed the prospect of an injunction, saying the judge would order the district to negotiate more intensely. But negotiations usually are suspended during arbitrations, Sweet said.

The school board refuses to negotiate during a strike, jeopardizing the scheduled June 12 session. If the teachers returned to work by then, the district would need to put a new offer on the table, Webb said.