Career Technology Center teachers' strike focuses on fair pay
Published: October 30, 2009
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Michael J. Mullen / Staff Photographer Striking Career Technology Center teachers walk a picket line in front of the Scranton School District Administration Building on Thursday.
Those who teach carpentry, plumbing and culinary arts want to earn as much as those who teach English, math and biology.
Teachers from the Career Technology Center of Lackawanna County took that message to picket lines on Thursday, as their 700 students stayed in their home schools and worked on extra math problems or studied.
On the first full day of the strike, teachers picketed at Valley View, outside the Scranton School District administration building and along North Main Avenue near the tech center.
"We're real teachers," union President Yolanda Martinelli shouted outside the Scranton administration building on North Washington Avenue, adding: "Real pay!"
Pay is the main stumbling block in the failed contract negotiations, as teachers cite making less than the teachers from high schools that send students to the center. The school's 36 teachers have been working without a contract since September 2008.
The starting salary at the center is $29,300 - less than the starting salaries for all Lackawanna County school districts. The average salary at the center is $41,744, also less than county districts and nearby vo-tech schools, according to 2007-08 state Department of Education data, the latest available.
Offers include:
- From the center, a 3.5 percent raise across all salary steps for each year of a five-year contract, plus health insurance, including cost increases, paid in full.
- From the union, along with full health insurance, an 8 percent increase for each year of the five-year contract, which teachers say would bring them in line with surrounding districts. Several superintendents said the union had made an offer on Monday night with a lower percentage, but union organizers did not confirm that.
Along the picket line Thursday, teachers - along with adult students - expressed frustration that an agreement had not been reached.
Adult students in the Career Technology Center's licensed practical nursing program, wearing their white uniforms, held signs like "One less day in class, one less life saved in my career."
The students, who said they pay about $10,000 in tuition, had been scheduled for clinical rotations at area hospitals on Thursday, but with a unionized teacher, were out on the picket line instead.
"We're on hold. Some people quit their jobs, have no health insurance," Laurie Krause of Archbald said.
Other adult courses taught by unionized faculty members have been canceled as well.
Also Thursday, the center temporarily laid off seven instructional aides.
"There aren't any students here. Obviously, there's no work for you," center administrative director Vincent Nallo said he told the employees. Mr. Nallo added that they can file for unemployment benefits.
Teachers say they are willing to continue the strike - and lose paydays - for as long as necessary.
"We're going to stay out until they come to us with something," Ms. Martinelli said. "They don't respect us."
When teachers from a school district strike, they must end the work stoppage in time for 180 days of school to be completed by June 30. But because center students will be fulfilling the 180-day requirement at their home districts, there is no limit to how long the teachers can strike.
Center teachers will also be losing a day of pay for each day they are out because they will not make up those days later.
The 700 students at the center, who come from more than a dozen school districts, spend half the day at the center learning trades such as childcare or collision repair, and the rest of the day at their high schools for core academic classes. Districts pay the center based on how many students attend the school.
Area superintendents and members of school boards, who have expressed frustration about not knowing negotiation details, will meet this afternoon at the center. Each of the nine districts in the consortium - Carbondale Area, Dunmore, Forest City Regional, Lakeland, Mid Valley, North Pocono, Riverside, Scranton and Valley View - have one board member on the center's joint operating committee. The committee has the authority to approve a teachers contract.
"We don't have time to sit around and wait for something to happen. We have to make something happen," Scranton Superintendent William King said.
Contact the writer: shofius@timesshamrock.com
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