Teachers' Union Contract

NORWALK -- Board of Education members are spiking the football on what's being called a favorable arbitrated teachers' union contract. While the arbitration panel sided with the Norwalk Federation of Teachers (NFT) on keeping class size regulations in place and a three-year contract duration, the board finally got its hard freeze, which will save the board more than $3 million. The board also won some work rules rollbacks, such as giving the superintendent more leeway in transferring teachers, which the NFT also agreed to. There will also be changes to the insurance plan, though the panel chose to pick and choose between portions of the teachers' last best offer and the board's. NFT President Bruce Mellion's salary will also come off the books. The board was previously paying 40 percent of Mellion's salary. "You're never going to get 100 percent of arbitration, particularly when you have a large number of issues like this. On the big items, the ones we really considered critically important, I'd say we got 80 percent of them," said Mike Lyons, who sits on the board's Negotiations and Personnel Committee. Board Chairman Jack Chiaramonte, who was a major proponent of a hard freeze during the summer's budget crisis, called the freeze a "win for everybody" as Norwalk teachers, on average, are still some of the best paid in the state. "Had the union taken the hard freeze as we asked them to, librarians and teachers and other employees would still be working today," said Chiaramonte. "We asked them nicely. Saying no during negotiations wasn't wise, as it turns out. We told them every other union has taken a freeze, not only in the city, in every city in every state in the country." The hard freeze comes into effect for the 2013-14 school year, with salary and step increases returning for 2014-15. In 2015-16, salary and step increases will be reopened for negotiation..................................... source:This is a quote from The Hour.