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As the 2015-2016 school year ramps up, 10 education-related unions in Luzerne County are negotiating new contracts, including the Crestwood School District support staff, which not only has gone the longest in the area working under an expired contract, but had the dubious distinction of having its most recent negotiations last seven years.
That marathon only ended with intervention from a county judge. Most recently, the Crestwood School Board filed an unfair labor practice complaint with the state Labor Relations Board, contending the two sides reached a tentative agreement later disavowed by the union, and the union has failed to return to the bargaining table since June.
Union lead negotiator Matt Gruenloh said Friday he has arranged three bargaining dates, with the first set for the end of this month, and that having sessions on the calendar makes the school board’s labor complaint “moot.”
Gruenloh also said the main sticking points “are wages, health care and an issue with the summer hours for secretaries.” The union is still working under terms of a contract that expired in 2013. That deal, in turn, finally replaced one that expired in 2001.
The two sides had grappled for years, reaching several interim agreements before a judge ordered daily negotiations until a settlement was reached.
Only two other unions are bargaining over contracts that expired prior to this year. The Luzerne County Community College Education Association contract ran from 2011 to 2014, while the Wyoming Area Education support personnel contract ran from 2009 into 2014. That means both began negotiations early last year and are still at the table.
Seven unions began negotiations earlier this year in anticipation of contracts expiring this summer: Dallas School District support staff and teacher unions, the Luzerne Intermediate Unit support staff, the Pittston Area support staff and teacher unions in Wyoming Valley West and Crestwood.
All those unions are part of the Pennsylvania State Education Association, the state branch of the nation’s largest teacher union, the National Education Association. Pittston Area teachers belong to the second-largest teacher union, the American Federation of Teachers. They reached a new deal in June.