Teacher contract negotiations at Schuylkill Intermediate Unit 29 will resume in February, according to Diane M. Niederriter, IU 29 executive director and Mary Alice Wasilewski, president of the IU 29 teachers' association.
The first bargaining session since June will be held at 3 p.m. Feb. 19 at the IU 29 Maple Avenue Campus in Mar Lin, Niederriter and Wasilewski confirmed Wednesday.
The IU's 67 teachers have been working without a contract since June 30, 2012, when their three-year pact expired. Negotiations began Jan. 9, 2012. On Aug. 6, 2012, the IU 29 board rejected a report authored by fact-finder Robert C. Gifford, an attorney from State College.
The last negotiation session was June 6.
Since then, the teachers union - the IU 29 Exceptional Children's Program Education Association - has changed its representation.
The Pennsylvania State Education Association, Allentown, had been representing the union since the mid-1970s, Lauri Lebo, a PSEA spokeswoman, said June 27.
On Oct. 22, the teachers union chose Teamsters Local 429, Wyomissing, Berks County. Ralph J. Teti, an attorney who is a senior partner in the law firm of Willig, Williams and Davidson, Philadelphia, will represent the teachers at the bargaining table, Wasilewski said Wednesday.
"The firm in which I am a senior partner, Willig, Williams and Davidson, serves as general counsel to Teamsters Local 429. I do a fair amount of work with teacher unions in Pennsylvania," Teti said Wednesday.
"What we hope to obtain for the members of the bargaining unit from these negotiations are a fair wage and benefits package. The members of the bargaining unit who work for the IU are extremely dedicated to their jobs and to the mission of the IU. The teachers have worked almost three of the last five years without an agreement in place. We think it is in the interests of both labor and management to have an agreement in place as soon as possible. And that is how we intend to approach the negotiation process which begins on February 19," Teti said.
Charles N. Sweet, an attorney from Doylestown, Bucks County, has been representing the IU 29 in the contract talks.
"The scheduling of a date for negotiations took so long because all parties involved had to agree upon a date. With so many schedules to deal with as well as the mediator's schedule it was difficult to find a convenient date and time for all to be available," Wasilewski said Wednesday.
The mediator will be William D. Gross, director of the Bureau of Mediation at the state Department of Labor & Industry, Harrisburg.