Congratulations colleagues! Our contract has been ratified by the Guttenberg Board of Ed. Once the contract has been duly executed by both parties, a signed copy will be posted on the website and reproduced for all unit members.
There may be some confusion regarding a couple of issues. The first issue is the 2011-2012 school calendar which was emailed to us. The calendar will have to be revised to accommodate the new professional development schedule.
The second issue deals with the open enrollment period for enrolling or waiving health benefits. Please note that will take place in October.
The last issue that might be generating some confusion deals with the $15,000 limit on terminal leave pay. This provision which was changed through legislation only affects (and limits the maximum amount of the benefit) unit members who commenced employment after January 1, 2010.
Please note that in the beginning of the school year we will schedule a membership meeting where a representative from Horizon will be present to inform us what our options are concerning the new health savings account benefit and how it works. That meeting date will be posted on the GFT website and e-mailed in the school to all unit members.
The Guttenberg Board of Education is seeking to provide little to no wage increase over the next three years, while our members become laid off and our class sizes grow.Meanwhile very little, if any, “shared sacrifice” is being discussed for the upper-levels of administration.We need you to ask, “why not”?
The Board would like to provide us with a less-than-comparable health insurance plan while we pay 1.5% of our salaries towards it. They would like us to extend our work hours without ample compensation.What are you willing to do about it? We will need to call upon all GFT members to support our alternate budget choices during the summer and into next school year.Researchers from AFT have begun analyzing financial information from the GuttenbergSchool District including financial statements and expenditures from the previous fiscal years.This analysis will help us to prepare economic proposals that are fair and reasonable, unlike those already proposed by the Board.Please be prepared to do whatever it may take to ensure our message is heard loud and clear by the Board.You will be updated via our website (http://nj.aft.org/gft) and other methods throughout the summer.
The GFT Negotiations Committee has met with the Board for a total of six meetings to date.The most recent meeting was held on June 9th, 2010.Our next meeting will be held on July 7th, 2010.The negotiations sessions are moving at a slow pace, in part because of the uncertainty of both the State and local budgets.Our voices must be heard on this issue.
Based upon your input, we have proposed about a dozen items (some are new contract articles while some seek to modify existing articles).We feel that our proposals are both practical and proactive in nature.For example, we have proposed a professional development language that is creative yet cost effective.Most of the Board’s proposals seek to eliminate long-standing benefits and to create more work for our members with little/no compensation.This is unacceptable!
Unfortunately, no provisions or new articles have been tentatively agreed upon to date, and the Board seems reluctant to make progress at the bargaining table.This is also unacceptable!Again, we need your support outside of the bargaining table as we continue to meet throughout the summer.
