Teachers OK wage freeze

Teachers voted to support the cuts just a few hours before Easton's Annual Town Meeting convened last week to consider next year's budget. Town Administrator David Colton said the teachers' concessions will save the town more than $500,000 in the next fiscal year and help avoid layoffs. If all the other municipal workers' unions in town agree, the savings could approach $2 million, he said.

In several other communities, requests for similar concessions from educators have not met with much success.

In Scituate, while all other unions connected to the school district agreed to a wage freeze for the coming fiscal year, the teachers refused, Scituate School Committee chairman Bill Johnston said last week. As a result, the district is facing the elimination of 39 full-time positions.

"The total savings for the wage freeze just for the teachers would have been about $650,000," Johnston said, based on the 3 percent increases they are slated to get. "The total for all the school em ployees is $767,000. With the freeze, we would have had some layoffs, but the majority of the teachers' positions would have come back."

Asked whether the other bargaining groups in the school district will follow through with their commitment to the freeze, now that the teachers have refused, Johnston said he wasn't certain. "We'll have to go back and discuss it," he said.

Johnston said the economy was better when officials negotiated the current contract with the teachers' union. "We negotiated the raises last March or April, before things got really bad," he said. The teachers, as part of the agreement, get 3 percent per year for three years. Johnston said the police and firefighters don't have contracts currently, so there were no increases to deal with.

The teachers' union in Quincy also refused to agree to a wage freeze, when officials made the request in April. Officials said the measure would have saved the city about $3 million. But union officials said their membership left the door open for future discussion. At the time of their vote, union president Paul Phillips said teachers were reluctant to make a major financial commitment with federal stimulus money promised to the city.

In Milton, the teachers' union refused a request for a wage freeze a couple months ago, calling it a "Band-Aid approach" to a much greater financial problem. Increases for Milton school employees will cost about $1.3 million in the upcoming year. They will be funded from the $1.8 million the School Department will receive as its cut of the $3.4 million override that passed last Monday.

In Rockland, $2.7 million in overrides recently approved will not affect a wage freeze the town's teachers' union had agreed to, said Town Administrator Allan Chiocca. "They have agreed to no raises and no step increases for next year," he said. The teachers' contract expires this month.

Teachers' wages in Rockland are the third-lowest in Plymouth County, and their willingness to accept a wage freeze is not a precedent, town officials note.

"The teachers' union has taken four zeroes in the last 20 years," Chiocca said. Other employee groups in town have also had zero wage increases for the last few years, he added.

In Franklin, the teachers' union has been negotiating for a while but is set to take another vote on a deferral of the upcoming year's 2.5 percent wage increase next week.

Negotiation continues in Easton with the two local unions that have yet to agree to the six-month pay freeze and enrollment in a less pricey health plan.

The Easton police union is expected to vote within the next several days, but the firefighters' union has been resistant, so far, to any change related to the health plan.

Firefighter union vice president David McRae said the switch in health plan is the sticking point.

"We're not oblivious to the financial issues of the town," he said. "The town is looking for $75,000 from us in concessions, and we have offered more than $100,000 with one of our alternatives."

McRae said union officials have suggested the town form a study committee to look into the health plan issue before any decisions are made. "We have too many questions, and there are too many unknowns," he said.

Christine Legere can be reached at christinelegere@yahoo.com.

Correction: Because of a reporting error, this June 14 story about teachers in Easton approving a wage freeze misidentified the town in which the police union was expected to vote on concessions on benefits. It should have stated, “The Easton police union is expected to vote within the next several days, but the firefighters’ union has been resistant, so far, to any change related to the health plan.’’