(Host) Negotiators for 270 unionized Bennington area teachers and the Southwest Vermont Supervisory Union have been meeting today in a last-ditch effort to avert a teachers strike.
The two sides agreed to work with a neutral facilitator. They’re trying to get over an impasse over negotiation ground rules so they can focus on specific contract issues.
Darren Allen is a spokesman for the teachers’ union. He says only a tentative agreement can prevent a teachers’ strike tomorrow.
(Allen) "If the boards mean what they say, that they want a settlement – we mean what we say, that we want a settlement – there’s going to be give and take all day. And that’s how contracts are developed. Both sides give a little, both sides work together toward the aim, in this case, of averting a strike tomorrow morning."
(Host) Mount Anthony Union School Board Chair Sean-Marie Oller is not on the negotiating team. But she says she believes there is room for movement on both sides.
(Oller) "I’m hopeful that what …is being discussed today is the issues. And that we can get some resolution around the issues that would allow the teachers to feel comfortable enough not to strike and … a contract settlement that we would be able to ratify in the next couple of days."
(Host) Oller says those issues include teachers’ pay, and health care.
The boards want teachers to pay an increased percentage of their coverage. Administrators and non-union workers have already accepted the health care changes.
Last week, teachers voted overwhelmingly to strike Wednesday morning if negotiations do not succeed.