Will there be a teacher strike in Utah?
Two days after nearly 200 teachers held a silent protest at a board of education meeting and threatened to strike, Salt Lake City School District announced it has failed to come to a compromise with the union to raise salaries.
“The negotiation process has now reached an impasse, and further action is pending,” it announced in a statement Thursday. District Superintendent Lexi Cunningham added: There are restrictions in “what we can do due to limited funding.”
The stalemate comes as districts across the state — but particularly along the Wasatch Front — have engaged in a bidding war to attract the best teachers. Salt Lake City has in the past ranked among the top for pay. Without a raise, it will be at the bottom.
“We want people to come here and stay,” said James Tobler, president of the Salt Lake Education Association, which has been negotiating with the district’s school board members for more than two months over salary. “But [what the district is] proposing would really hurt teachers. It would hurt their lifetime earnings.”
Read more: https://www.sltrib.com/news/education/2019/06/06/after-teachers-silently/
(Salt Lake Tribune)