Stoughton teachers and their supporters rallied at a city park, marched through the downtown area and picketed outside the school administration building Thursday (May 15, 2008), demanding that the school board work with them to resolve a contract dispute that is nearly a year old.
“This community cannot survive without its public schools and its great teachers, and you deserve what you are asking for,” WEAC Secretary-Treasurer Betsy Kippers said at the rally. “You work hard, you support this community and you make this community successful. It's time they respect that and show that respect at the bargaining table. Three hundred days without a contract is not respectful, and it is not acceptable.
“Get the respect you deserve. Fight hard. Be unified. You deserve more, and you should continue to fight for more.”
Stoughton Education Association President Peggy Walker said the last negotiation also was contentious and went more than 500 days before being resolved. “And now we’re sitting here at 325 days,” she said.
Walker said the school board cut insurance benefits last time and increased deductibles and now wants to eliminate the current self-funded insurance and put teachers in a point-of-service plan. She said Stoughton teachers are angry at the school board’s offer, especially when “there’s not enough on the salary schedule to compensate for those insurance changes."
“Our wages have not kept up with our peers in our conference. We feel that’s unfair,” she said. “We’re losing our youngest teachers to outlying districts. We’re not retaining our experienced teachers with 10 to 15 years (experience), and that’s a real concern to us. We want the best teachers brought into the system and we want to keep them here through fair wages when compared to our peers.”
In addition, she said, Stoughton teachers’ retirement plan “is not comparable to other districts in this area.”
Walker said the board’s negotiations tactics are delaying progress on a new contract.
“We have asked the board to negotiate with us face to face but they only reply to our offers at the table through their lawyer. We feel that if we could sit down through this process we could get a contract resolved.
“We start mediation today,” she said. “We’re hopeful that the mediator will be able to bring the sides together and resolve this so we can get back to teaching students."
During the march through downtown and the picketing outside the school administration building, where the mediation session was taking place, teachers chanted, “What do we want? A contract! When do we want it? Now!”
Other chants included, “The QEO must go!” and “Two-four-six-eight, come on now, negotiate!”