Saturday, February 23, 2013
By Susan Tebben
AUSTINTOWN
The teachers union says it is ready to settle contract negotiations with the Austintown School District and is using an intent-to-strike authorization to get the process moving.
“We’ve been negotiating since May, and we need to get this settled,” said Austintown Education Association president Barb Tomic. “We had hoped that we would have had something settled by now.”
The district and the union plan to negotiate Monday.
The previous contract expired Aug. 29, 2012, and negotiations have been conducted with a federal mediator.
Details of the ongoing talks have not been revealed by the district or teachers union.
The union says it has not heard from the district about its unanimous decision to authorize a 10-day notice of intent to strike “as the team sees fit,” according to its statement. It added that “the actions of both Superintendent Colaluca and the Board’s bargaining team have left us no choice,” but no strike date was set.
The vote came after Tomic made a statement about the talks during public comment at Tuesday’s school board meeting that gave no indication the vote was being considered.
The notice has not been given, Tomic said, but with the authorization from members, the union can give the notice at any time.
Superintendent Vincent Colaluca said he had not heard about the vote until asked for comment on it by The Vindicator.
The 10-day notice is required by law before the AEA can strike.
Tomic said the union had no plans to give notice before the negotiation date because it says it is hopeful about the mediation.
A group of teachers plans to stand in support of the union at 3 p.m. Monday in front of the Board of Education offices, Tomic said.
“They’ve done this before; they are just standing in support of us,” she said. “They won’t have signs, and they will certainly not be picketing.”
Colaluca said he remains optimistic about negotiations.
“Negotiations are about compromise; each side has to be willing to do that,” Colaluca said. “We feel we’ve been cordial through the process.”
The AEA represents about 315 teachers, nurses, guidance counselors, librarians and speech therapists in the district.