Members of the American Federation of Teachers union voted overwhelmingly Thursday night to approve a new contract for the 2000-2003 school years. The vote came after three prior wage agreements had been rejected by the union membership.
In simultaneous meetings across the territory, the overall vote to approve the contract was 520-161.
The St. Thomas-St. John members voted 291-64 to approve the contract which was announced by both sides this week. On St. Croix, the vote totaled 229-97.
The wage agreement was virtually the same as the one rejected in October, although in this version, the government upped the amount of money provided to union members in exchange for forfeiting rights to negotiate salary increases for the five previous school years.
According to the agreement, school employees with one to two years of experience will be paid $1,500; those with three to four years service will receive $1,750; and five years or more experience will lead to a $2,000 lump sum payment.
The checks representing the lump sum payments will be distributed within 30 days. The $2.4 million represents some of the savings the government realized during the 18-day teachers strike.
It was clear at the meeting on St. Thomas that many had expected more but after the ratification meeting held at the Charlotte Amalie High School auditorium, union president Glen J. Smith said the union did make a small gain during the negotiations, which were mediated by the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service.
"The government increased the cost of the lump sum payments to members by $2.4 million," Smith said. He admitted that no one is ecstatic about the agreement but said the union stood to lose more if the ratification failed and binding arbitration was to take place.
The union's chief negotiator, George Bordenave, said after the vote that the agreement is the best the union could have gotten under the circumstances. He did say that AFT members maintain the right to strike in the new agreement.
"There is no language in our contract that says we cannot strike," Smith said. Neither Smith nor Bordenave would say whether language in previous wage agreements were changed based on a court ruling that halted the October teacher's strike.
Both Bordenave and Smith contend that the AFT will be no longer willing to extend contracts with the government on a day to day basis as has been the case in the past.