NORTH POCONO, Penn. – Pennsylvania has earned the title of “teacher strike capital of America.” It seems if a school board member or administrator just looks at a union rep wrong, they’ll go on strike.
The issue in the North Pocono district is employees paying a portion of their health insurance.

Via The Times-Tribune:

North Pocono School District solicitor Joseph O’Brien said district officials “were very disappointed by the union’s decision to strike.” He said the strike would “hurt one group of people – the students” and hoped the union would reconsider the decision.

By state law, the union must provide 48 hours’ notice before a strike takes place.

Mr. O’Brien disputed that teachers have had a two-year salary freeze and pointed to the contract between the school district and teachers union that lasted from July 1, 2007, to June 30, 2012. The contract gave teachers pay raises of nearly 4 percent each year.

Mr. O’Brien said with no new contract, teachers did not receive a pay raise this school year but continue to work under the terms of the existing contract.

A major sticking point in negotiations, Mr. O’Brien said, involved the school district asking teachers to pay a portion of their health insurance premiums. Currently, teachers pay only co-pays and deductibles.

“That’s something extremely unrealistic,” Mr. O’Brien said of teachers not paying a portion of health insurance premiums. “They’re about the only people left on the planet who don’t pay any of their health care.”