By LESTER CHANG
More than 600 parents and 300 Fremont Union High School District teachers are expected to gather at the Sunnyvale Elks Club April 25 to talk about the need to expedite contract negotiations with the district.
The Fremont Education Association is hosting the 7 p.m. meeting as a way to rally public support.
"We would like the public to know how dedicated we are in completing the process by the end of the school year in June," said George Gredassoff, president of the Fremont teachers' union. "My team is ready to go on any one of those days until June 30."
The district, which serves 8,000 students, could face a strike involving 400 teachers should a contract not be negotiated, he said. The current three-year contract expires in August.
District officials said federal labor laws prevent them and their negotiating team from publicly disscussing the talks while they are in progress.
The Fremont school board on April 2 rejected a request from the FEA to hold more meetings before a scheduled negotiation session on April 23.
The board said it couldn't respond to the union's request because it had been put in the "communications with the public" session of the agenda.
By procedure, the board could only ask questions.
Gredassoff called it foot-dragging. "At this point, we have no faith in their word that they want to achieve that by the end of the year," he said.
The union's negotiating team has submitted 11 counterproposals while the district's team has not submitted any, he said.
The negotiations revolve chiefly around the the length of the contract, salaries, the way health and medical services are delivered and retirement benefits.
The union said teachers are struggling to maintain adequate salaries. Salaries for new teachers in the district are among the lowest in the Bay Area, the union claims.
New teachers coming into the Fremont district with a college degree and 30 units toward a California teaching credential earn $27,792 a year.
Their counterparts in the Campbell Union and the East Side Union high school districts make $26,132 and about $29,000, respectively. The average salary for new teachers statewide is about $26,000, according to the Santa Clara County Office of Education.
The union wants a one-year contract that would raise the salaries of new teachers to $35,000 and proposes a salary increase for experienced teachers from $48,000 to $59,000.
Fremont district officials want to raise the salaries of new teachers to $35,000 and the salaries of experienced teachers from $48,000 to $65,000 over three years.
The union seeks a one-year contract to ensure it can negotiate changes during lean economic times.
On health benefits, the district wants to lump the cost of medical insurance into a teacher's salary and allow teachers to choose from among 13 medical insurance carriers and other health insurance carriers.
The plan, if implemented, would allow teachers to select only services they need, resulting in savings to them, district officials said.
The union, however, wants to maintain a health and medical plan that provides a wide range of services.
This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, April 24, 1996.
©1996 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.