The decision to restore the health care plans didn’t come as a surprise to most but the added “directive to rehire teachers came as a surprise.” The arbitrator, Dana E. Eischen used some harsh language in the 17-page decision:
Arbitrator Dana E. Eischen said school district officials engaged in a "blatant power play" by unilaterally implementing the health care consolidation, "hijacked the contract rights of individual teachers," were "dictatorial" and displayed "arrogance of power.
The president of the Buffalo Teachers Federation, Philip Rumore, commented on the outcome “It’s a huge, huge victory. The most important part to us is bringing back laid-off teachers who were used as pawns by the superintendent and the board.” Many of the teachers that were laid off “had tenure or were working toward tenure, including librarians and media specialists, attendance teachers, counselors and others.”
On the other side School Superintendent James A. Williams said the reason the school switched to a single insurance carrier was “so that we could protect teachers' jobs - so it is unbelievable to me that any union leader would be pleased with a ruling that would negatively impact his members and their families.”
In regards to the decision to rehire the 66 teachers Eischen said “he based the rehiring order in considerable measure on unrefuted testimony from teachers that Williams told them at an Aug. 5, 2005, meeting that they would be rehired immediately if they could pressure the BTF to drop its objections to single-carrier health insurance.”
This issue most be quite a scandal in Buffalo so I would be interested to hear from people close to the fire. Do you agree with the arbitrators ruling?
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