PINE RIVER, Minn. – “The biggest issues are money on the salary schedule,” Pine River-Backus Education Association President Dawn Bergerson told the Brainerd Dispatch.

That’s always the case with teachers union contract negotiations.

Bergerson wants a cost of living increase for teachers in Minnesota’s Pine River-Backus school district, more money to help employees cover health insurance premiums, special stipends for certain teaching duties and other expensive changes to the union’s contract with the district.

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And to show teachers are so deserving, the union is encouraging them to do the minimum amount of work. The PRBEA recently instituted “work-to-rule” days, meaning teachers will refuse to perform any duties not explicitly outlined in the teachers contract, such as writing letters of recommendation for students applying to college.

“It’s basically just to put some pressure on the employer to settle the contract. In any job, you go above and beyond what you are supposed to be doing,” Bergerson told the Dispatch. “Teaching is no different. A lot of our elementary teachers are here at 7 a.m. because they have a huge work load, and just to get ready for their kids. The majority of our teachers stay past 3:20 every day. They give up meeting times and parent phone call times. All of that is encompassed in our day.”

For some reason, the PRBEA believes that if teachers don’t continue to do those types of things, the public will feel bad for them and want to give them more money. It’s a popular union tactic during the negotiation season this time of year, and it’s completely unnecessary and disrespectful to the taxpayers who fund teachers’ salaries.

Regardless, the district has offered to give the union just about everything it wants.

“The current tentative agreement includes increases in the district’s monthly insurance premium contributions from $335 to $405, including both health and life insurance, with health effective in September 2014; additional stipends or payments to ‘College in the School’ teachers, special education teachers, weight room supervisors and publishers of the elementary yearbook; addition of a 165th step on the salary schedule; a 1 percent increase in each of the next two years with steps 14 and 15 frozen; and an increase of teacher’s retirement plan contributions of .5 percent in each of the two years from 6.5 percent to 7 percent and 7 percent to 7.5 percent respectively,” the Dispatch reports.

The district’s current contract with the union expired in September 2013, and the salary increase would be retroactive under the district’s offer, but the other changes would not be, the news site reports.

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Union officials apparently aren’t satisfied that the other changes wouldn’t take effect until September 2014.

Bergerson said that during union’s first “work-to-rule” demonstration April 3 parents and students took notice.

But if they look a little closer at the details of the current contract negotiations, they’ll likely notice the union is balking at a very generous contract and think twice about supporting the teachers.