A Refresher on the Bridgewater-Raritan Schools Wage Package

I still remember the evening of December 18, 2007, when I sat down in the conference room of the Wade Administration in Martinsville to hear the Bridgewater-Raritan School Board approve a three-year 12.8% wage hike for the Bridgewater-Raritan Education Association. I don’t recall board members discussing that proposal. It was put on the table and voted upon. Done!

Members of the BREA have received the first two increments of that raise, 4.2% for the 2008/2009 school year, and 4.25% for the 2009/2010 school year. The final increment of that package, 4.35%, is due to take effect July 1st.

Since the BREA is the biggest bargaining unit, the results of its negotiations feather out in talks with the principals and supervisors associations who won’t settle for much less. Similarly, this influences the increases built into the superintendent’s package and others on the payroll. Control wage increases for the BREA, and you control everything else.

One of the reasons that the BREA rejected the board’s request to freeze the 4.35% wage hike now built into the April 20th budget is that it would weaken the BREA's position in the next round of contract negotiations. That point was made in what was probably a slip-of-the tongue, barely audible acknowledgment at one of the recent public meetings.

In yesterday’s post, I explained the concessions that already have been made by the BREA, while stressing that the 4.35% is still the biggest purse left on the table and included in this year’s budget. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

In an op-ed piece today in The Sunday Star-Ledger, Governor Christie writes that “There is still time to reopen negotiations and have the teachers union finally agree to reasonable, shared sacrifice – a one-year freeze on salaries and a small contribution to health insurance costs.”

The Bridgewater-Raritan Education Association has already agreed to a health care insurance contribution. Now it’s time for it to do some heavy lifting, return to the school board, and cancel its 4.35% wage hike for the 2010/2011 school year. The result would feather out to other bargaining units.

But that’s not in the cards; that is, not unless you, the voters of Bridgewater and Raritan robustly remind the BREA of that omission on Tuesday, April 20th, when you draw the curtain behind you in the voting booth.