Ohio’s broken collective bargaining process is showing its true colors again. A highly compensated group of teachers has engaged in a particularly ugly strike that leaves children in the middle of a heated dispute between a Strongsville School Board that is weighing fiscal considerations and a profligate public-sector union. The dispute hinges on benefits that management deems to be unsustainable and the union believes to be non-negotiable.

Not only has the education process been interrupted as students meet different substitute teachers on a near-daily basis, but some of the nearly 400 members of the Strongsville Education Association (SEA) who have been on strike for three weeks have engaged in provocative and—in some cases—illegal behavior. For example, members of the Strongsville School Board allege that union members barricaded the parking lot of the negotiating site using 100 people who, at least initially, refused to let the school board members leave. SEA members also protested in front of the homes of school board members, and two teachers were arrested in the first week of the strike—one for disorderly conduct after refusing police orders not to block the entryway to a school and another for reckless operation of a motor vehicle (member’s pick-up truck was used to attempt to cut off a van carrying substitute teachers).

Meanwhile, in neighboring Parma, residents began receiving flyers telling them that “scabs” live in their neighborhood. Of course, the so-called “scabs” are simply temporary replacement workers for those on strike. In this case, they are substitute teachers trying to assure some continuity to children’s education. One of the substitute teachers had his name, address, and other contact information involuntarily disclosed presumably with the intent to encourage intimidation.

So what is driving all of this nasty behavior? The SEA is unhappy with several School Board recommendations made during the current collective bargaining process. Among the concessions sought by the School Board were:

A three-year continuation of suspended automatic step raises (teachers want automatic increases each year regardless of performance);

1. Conversion of the 9.3 percent State Teachers’ Retirement pension pick-up, wherein the district pays a portion of the employees’ share of the pension in addition to the 14 percent employer-share already being paid, to a 9.3 percent salary increase (the union wants a 10.3 percent salary increase in exchange for converting the pension pick-up);
    
2. Requiring teachers to pay a portion, 15 percent, of their own dental care premiums (teachers wanted the district to pay 100 percent of dental premiums);
    
3. Increasing teachers’ monthly health premiums from 10 to 15 percent (teachers wanted a $175 family cap);
    
4. Using evaluations for layoffs and only utilizing seniority as a tie-breaker.

The Strongsville School Board sought the above concessions to proactively address the significant fiscal challenges that were outlined in the district’s December 2012 five-year forecast to the Ohio Department of Education (ODE). Strongsville Schools are projecting that they will be in the red by Fiscal Year 2013 to the tune of nearly $2 million. By 2017, they will be running a $9.3 million deficit and have a negative cash balance of $19.9 million.

In 2013, 87 percent of the district’s projected revenue will be consumed by salaries and benefits, which then jumps to 96 percent by 2017. In other words, absent major changes, in 4 years, 96 cents of every dollar brought into the district will be going to personnel costs and only 4 cents of every dollar to all other education-related expenses (facilities, transportation, programs, etc.. This discrepancy explains the district’s rapid descent into red ink. By 2017, pension and benefits alone count for a shocking 38 percent of projected revenue.

Additionally, according to the ODE, the median teacher salary in Strongsville for 2010-2011 was $68,916. By contrast, the median teacher salary in the state was only $54,797. A median teacher in Strongsville was making nearly 26 percent more than the median teacher statewide for 2010-2011 (2011-2012 data has not yet been released). This discrepancy shows that teachers in Strongsville are already well compensated in comparison to their peers around the state. The incongruence would certainly continue under the proposal where the teachers would receive a significant salary increase in lieu of the pension pick-up they have historically received—and that many other districts in Ohio do not offer.

Not only are the Strongsville teachers’ salaries higher than those of many other teachers in the state, but their benefit packages are particularly generous, especially in comparison to the majority of other Ohio workers.

According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, the average annual employee contribution to an employer-sponsored family insurance plan was $4,316 or over 27 percent of the total premium cost of $15,745. Compare that to the mere 15 percent proposed by the Strongsville School Board, much less the family cap demanded by the union which would amount to a mere 13 percent of the average total premium costs.

Additionally, according to a 2012 employer benefit survey done by Savitz Employee Consultants, employees pay around 37 percent of dental insurance premiums for single coverage and 44 percent for family coverage. Here, the school board sought only a 15 percent cost share while the union demanded that teachers pay no premiums whatsoever for the dental benefits.

The union also wants to continue embracing the status quo by stubbornly clinging to seniority as the basis for layoffs instead of peer review and quality of outcomes. They also want to force the school to provide taxpayer-funded facilities, equipment, and paid time off for union business.

Overall, these unreasonable demands indicate exactly what is broken in our collective bargaining system.

Reasonable proposals from a local school board attempting to grapple with tough fiscal realities are pushed aside in favor of a strike that breaks educational continuity for students. Instead of acknowledging that the times are changing and adjustments are needed to sustain the solvency of cities, towns, and municipalities in Ohio, the SEA is attempting to intimidate the School Board into capitulating to demands that would relegate Strongsville into an untenable financial position.

The nastiness of what is transpiring in Strongsville should serve as yet another reminder that not all is well with Ohio’s collective bargaining law and that reform remains essential to avoid this level of brinkmanship.

You can review the Board’s last best offer here and the SEA response here courtesy of Media Trackers Ohio.