The Herald-Independent's Update on Negotiations

9/27/2010 4:02:00 PM

Deadlocked teacher contract negotiations likely headed for arbitration

Adam Mella, Managing Editor

Read all of our district's news at the Herald Independent website. Now.

Teachers in the Monona Grove School District have been working without a contract since June of 2009, and it seems very likely that a resolution will only be reached through an independent arbitrator, both sides concede. Negotiations on a new contract have been deadlocked for much of that time, as the Monona Grove Education Association (MGEA) (representing the teachers) and the School Board have struggled to find common ground on the future of retirement benefits.
Teachers say the school board’s “attacks” on those benefits are unacceptable, and that the board didn’t even offer some other form of compensation in exchange for those proposed reductions.
The school board, on the other hand, says that current retirement benefits for Monona Grove teachers are vastly more generous than neighboring districts, and that sky-rocketing healthcare costs make those benefits unsustainable.
Both sides have agreed to meet with a mediator on October 26, but neither the teachers or the school board appear ready (or able) to budge from their positions, and so, an arbitration hearing remains the most likely outcome.


Read this rest of this article at http://www.herald-independent.com/


:::
For more information on the current negotiations, you can visit the MGEA website at mgea.org, or the school district website at mononagrove.org/update.cfm#d141678.

And don't forget to click here about a million times.