By Steve Gunn
EAGnews.org

PITTSBURGH – When teachers unions don’t get their way at the bargaining table, one of their favorite tactics is to spin the issue in their favor and try to turn the public against local school boards.

School boards traditionally turn the other cheek and remain silent, usually because they fear the unions will charge them with unfair labor practices. Unfortunately their silence frequently allows unions to shape public opinion any way they want.

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But Baldwin-Whitehall school board member Kevin Fischer applied a different approach at a school board meeting Wednesday. In a passionate, table-pounding response that drew applause from the audience, he accused the union of telling taxpayers to “bend over” and challenged a state union spokesman to come to town and defend the teachers’ financial proposal.

The exchange between Fischer and the teachers union started earlier this week, when Pennsylvania Education Association spokesman Butch Santicola issued a press release condemning the Baldwin-Whitehall school board’s rejection of a local union proposal to extend the current labor contract by two years at current salary levels.

The union claims the offer would have saved the district $1.5 million per year, according to a news report from BaldwinPatch.com.

But school officials note that the union’s offer came with strings attached – a no layoff clause and a freeze in the level of contributions that union members would have to pay toward certain benefits. School board members thought it was too financially risky to give the union those guarantees for two years, particularly when future school funding levels could decline dramatically.

Santicola used the press release to blast the board’s rejection of the offer.

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“The Baldwin-Whitehall school board just thumbed their noses not only at their teachers … they also thumbed their noses at the taxpaying residents and the students of the district,” Santicola wrote.

Fischer was not in the mood for this type of distortion. He pointed out that the teachers union rejected a one-year wage freeze that did not include conditions, which many other district employees have already accepted.

“All we wanted was one year,” Fisher said, regarding the proposed wage freeze. “Join the rest of the group. Take one year, put it in your pocket, let’s move on.

“(But) no, no, they come back with this list of demands. And let’s remember something, folks. ‘Take it or leave it’ was basically how they put it to us. Quite frankly, folks, this board has never thumbed its nose at the taxpayers. But the (union), they just told the taxpayers to ‘bend over.’

“That’s what they did. That’s what they’ll do. Take it to the bank.”

Fischer then challenged Santicola to visit the school district and explain the union proposal directly to residents.

“Whoever’s out there, tell Mr. Santicola, come to Baldwin-Whitehall,” Fischer continued. “I’ll take a day or two off of my job. Tell him to come here. We’ll walk the streets of Baldwin-Whitehall. We’ll take our proposal, and we’ll take their proposal to the taxpayers of the community, and I’ll bet you a nickel to a dollar what they tell me they want to have.

“We’re not the bad guy. And I challenge him to come here, walk with me and see who the bad guy is.”

Good for Fischer. It’s high time for local school boards to break their silence and educate the public about the high cost of union labor in public schools and the games the unions play to avoid real financial concessions that would help schools survive the financial crisis.

Unless the public hears both sides, they will never know the truth.