Faced with mounting pressure from the finance commission and an unfavorable legal opinion from Town Counsel Justin C. Barton, the Norwood School Committee voted to ask school employee unions-primarily teachers-to renegotiate.
The collective bargaining agreements call for 8 percent raises in the first year and 7.5 percent in the second. Committee Chairman Joseph Pentowski stated that while the board believes it negotiated excellent contracts costing approximately $700,000, they will formally approach the unions in good faith to seek lower pay increases.
However, the committee emphasized it will not force the issue. Pentowski noted that if the unions decline to reopen talks, the board will present the original contracts to the September 20 town meeting for a funding vote. “We will at least make the attempt so that no one can state that we didn’t at least make an attempt,” Pentowski said. “It’s up to each bargaining unit to decide whether to renegotiate.”
The standoff stems from a June 1 town meeting vote that refused to fund the raises. While the school committee initially interpreted the vote as a mere delay pending settlements with police, fire, and public works departments, the finance committee and Town Counsel Barton maintained it constituted an outright rejection. Finance committee member William J. Collins argued that approving the school raises-which alone totaled about $700,000, exceeding the $500,000 pool recommended for all town employees-would violate the spirit of Proposition 2 1/2 and set an unsustainable precedent for other municipal unions.
Joyce Gleason, vice president of the Norwood Teachers Association, stated that the union had not yet determined how it would respond to the committee’s request. Meanwhile, Collins acknowledged that the likelihood of unions voluntarily agreeing to scale back their negotiated raises remains slim. (Reporting by Rick Moriarty, The Patriot Ledger).) and the official Town of Norwood portal (norwoodma.gov).
Archival Note: This article has been dynamically reconstructed from the original public record print archives of the Patriot Ledger
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