West Haven teachers lash out at Picard on pact

12/20/2006

Marissa Yaremich , Register Staff

WEST HAVEN — Who else will be "punished" during contract negotiations to help save the city’s spiraled finances other than West Haven teachers? Will the police take an obligated hit? How about the three independent fire districts?

Those were some of the frustrated comments conveyed to Mayor John M. Picard during a Tuesday open forum at West Haven High School as roughly 200 teachers vented their frustration about a recently arbitrated contract that forced onto them minimal raises and steep health insurance co-payments, among other changes.

"We voted against taking a ... pay freeze and now we are being punished for it. Now those that did not give up (their) pay raises, will they (too) be punished?" asked Forest School teacher Paula Saunders.

The arbitrated contract, which became official two weeks ago, severely limits teachers’ pay raises from 2007 to 2010. For the first year, all teachers will receive a blanket $1,516 increase with subsequent annual pay raises fluctuating between less than $500 to about $2,500.

Though some teachers acknowledged they don’t mind sacrificing a little for the greater good, the hit is virtually unbearable for many of the union’s 550-plus members because their insurance co-payments will jump from 7 to 15 percent in 2007-08, essentially cancelling out any raise they may have had.

Picard said he asked all of the city unions to give back. Some did but others, like the police union, did not. "Other contracts are going to be negotiated. Unfortunately, yours is the first one," said Picard, who called the forum in conjunction with Superintendent of Schools JoAnn Hurd Andrees, other administrators and the Board of Education to give the teachers the chance to be heard.

Union President Patti Fusco plans to visit schools to explain the decision, because teachers are still trying to understand it.

She also used the time to clarify that although other unions voluntarily gave back for this budget year, the city agreed to compensate those employees in subsequent years while the teachers’ union must pay the price for three years. Picard emphasized that had he known the extent of the city’s debt when he offered pay freezes to unions, he never would have made the offer.

Picard said the forum was the city’s chance to bring out the facts that led to arbitration.

"There was no offer of a forum" prior to the arbitration, Fusco said, to which Picard and school board Chairwoman M. Toni Paine adamantly disagreed.

While the topics and concerns varied depending on the speaker, the emotional impact showed on the face of high school teacher Brandy Heflin, a Yale University physics graduate, as she choked back tears to convey the difficult decision the contract imposes on her.

"I don’t want to leave. How do I have any other choice but to look elsewhere?" Heflin said. "I can’t afford it. I just can’t."

Marissa Yaremich can be reached at myaremich@nhregister.com or 789-5742.