An emergency membership meeting of the St. Thomas-St. John Federation of Teachers has been called for 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 6, at the Palms Court Harborview Hotel.
According to a brief press release from the AFT local distributed Thursday, "This meeting is being held to deal with contract status and future direction."
The union's school building representatives are to meet at 4 p.m. at the hotel prior to the general membership session.
On Monday, members of the St. Thomas-St. John local resoundingly rejected the three-year contract negotiated by union representatives and the Turnbull administration, 219 votes against the measure to 124 in favor. While their St. Croix counterparts approved the pact by a relatively slim margin, 165 to 142, the combined tallies added up to rejection, 361 to 289.
Classes for the 2000-01 year are scheduled to start Sept. 11, although construction work will still be going on at some schools and it appears unlikely that the teachers will have a contract in place.
One of the main sticking points in the contract presented to the membership for a vote Monday was agreement to drop all claims to 50 percent of the more than $100 million in retroactive pay the teachers are owed. The pact also provided for the union members to forgo pay hikes negotiated for last year and the 1995-96 school year, in return for some $8.6 million in raises and another $1.5 million in benefits over the three years of the contract.
Another concern expressed by members at the St. Thomas-St. John meeting Monday night was the need for more time to review the contract.
After AFT leaders from both districts met Tuesday, St. Croix local president Cecil Benjamin said the union had asked the administration to "take the issue of retroactive pay off the table for now and to focus on putting members on the correct salary step," the Daily News reported Wednesday.
The paper quoted St. Thomas-St. John AFT acting president Vernelle deLagarde as saying she and Benjamin "took the initiative" of approaching the administration on the retroactive pay issue without putting the matter to the membership first.
Meanwhile Tuesday evening, Government House distributed a press release in which Gov. Charles W. Turnbull said that, because of the government's dire financial straits, "the forgiveness of some amount of the retroactive debt has to be a part of any discussion about wage increases." And on Wednesday, chief labor negotiator Karen Andrews said she had told the union leaders that the government would not budge on the retroactive issue.
Benjamin noted that if the government refuses to drop that provision of the contract, negotiations could be at an impasse, The Avis reported Wednesday. In that case, both sides could agree to seek federal mediation or binding arbitration.
