WNYLaborToday.com Editor’s Note: The photos that appear with this Labor News Report are courtesy of New York State United Teachers (NYSUT) Western Region Staff Director Mike Deely’s Facebook Page.

(SOUTH DAYTON, NEW YORK) – In Cattaraugus County on Wednesday (October 11th), 70 Pine Valley Teachers and supporters braved the wind and rain to hold an informational picket to call attention to the School District inability to come up with a contract that is suitable to the area Educators or the Pine Valley Teacher’s Association.

The group stood in front of the school building, displaying a variety of signs that included: “Hurt Our School, Hurt Our Future,” “Educate Not Educut,” “Where Have All the Teachers Gone?” and “Payne Lies, Pine Valley Dies.”

In an informational flier that was distributed by the Union, it said:

The Pine Valley Teachers Association (PVTA) and the Pine Valley CSEA (Civil Service Employees Association) Locals are both at impasse with the School District and need their contracts settled now!  

While Pine Valley has one of the longest Teacher workdays and among the lowest average Teacher salaries in the region, the District is looking to eliminate the Teachers' Salary Schedule and replace it with a Salary System that guarantees Teachers as little as $300 a year in raises - an increase that would be less than inflation!

The PVTA is not willing to settle for the District's salary proposal, but has expressed a willingness to explore other salary options with the District, so long as the District agrees to provide a one-year contract extension while the changes were being explored.  

However, the District has rejected this request and unilaterally filed for impasse.

The District has expressed a concern that a one-year extension would let the PVTA delay, instead of really negotiate, yet it is the District that has delayed in having the Superintendent sit down at the negotiation table. 

The District didn't even make their initial (and incomplete) salary proposal until the third month of negotiations and only weeks from the expiration of the contract!

Pine Valley Teachers do not have automatic step increases on their current salary schedule, so no one got a raise in September.

In fact, some actually went backwards and are being paid less! 

The District's message is clear: Do it our way or else!

Both the PVTA and CSEA are seeking good-faith negotiations and fair contracts with fair wage increases.

The District instead is relying on doomsday guesses about future finances, that are years away, to claim that drastic financial steps need to be taken now (meaning unfair salaries for Teachers and Staff). 

Meanwhile, the District is currently in the black, financially!

Many veteran Pine Valley Teachers have left before the start of this school year, in large part because of the contract problems between the PVTA and the District.

There has been an 18% turnover rate in Teachers in just the last four months!

How many more will leave before the District settles fair contracts with their Unions?

To Read The Dunkirk Observer’s News Report, Go To: www.observertoday.com/news/page-one/2017/10/educators-take-a-stand/