NEW ROCHELLE, NY — For the second time in six months, FUSE, the union representing pedagogical staff and service related professionals working for the New Rochelle Board of Education has announced their contract negotiations with the City School District of New Rochelle has broken down.
New Rochelle Federation of United School Employees, or FUSE, is the local New York State United Teachers (NYSUT) chapter.
“We have once again been forced to declare impasse to negotiations,” wrote Cheryl Smith, Negotiations Chair for FUSE.
The contentious relationship between management and labor than exists today in the City School District of New Rochelle is unprecedented.
We asked the City School District of New Rochelle for a statement:
We are unaware that the FUSE statement is within the public domain, and as such we agree to a confidentiality agreement clause, which we are honoring at this time. Therefore, we have no statement at this time.
The District will be issuing a statement regarding FUSE negotiations sometime after school reopens on January 4, 2021.
FUSE declared an impasse in June when the district, in a one-year package proposal, was insisting on a hard freeze to salaries (no step increases) with additional detrimental changes to our contract, said Smith.
“In October, the mediator requested both sides go back to the table to work toward a three-year deal. FUSE agreed and went back to the bargaining table in a good faith effort to achieve just that. The district’s initial proposal included such outrageous demands as employer restrictions on staff family planning decisions, elimination of due process for all SRPs, elimination of prep and duty periods, and an increase in insurance cost with a decrease in the quality of plan. After several meetings with the district, it became clear that they had no intention of achieving a three-year deal.”
Smith explained in the FUSE email;
We continued in hopes of a two-year deal. A week ago, the district told us they could not agree to anything more than a one-year deal, which is actually a six-month deal since they indicated that nothing would be retroactive.
The six-month deal would require numerous and permanent givebacks including relinquishing the right to a mutually agreed upon school calendar, increasing the required retirement notification to six months, additional duty periods at the high school, and mandatory coverages. In exchange, they offered a one-year payment of 0.86% that was not permanent… and would not be pensionable. Ultimately, their real offer was an increase of 0.54%. But wait! Since it wouldn’t be retroactive, that would have made your actual 2020-2021 increase 0.27%. For reference, White Plains, a comparable district, is in the middle of a three-year contract with increases of 1.5% for each year. On the other hand, White Plains is not paying off hundreds of thousands of dollars to multiple superintendents and previous administrators, not to mention millions to their new law firm.
That was the district’s final offer. The FUSE Negotiations Committee unanimously rejected this offer and immediately declared an impasse. We will have a meeting with all our members to discuss and share more details during the first week of January.
Despite the district’s disrespect, we want you to know that FUSE recognizes the value, dedication, and stability that we continue to provide to this community. During this holiday season, we wish you and your families a happy, safe, and healthy new year.
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FUSE Declares Impasse in Contract Negotiations with New Rochelle Board of Education
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