Peggy Maxfield,a Brattleboro middle school math instructor, traveled nearly two hours last Wednesday to join other teachers in a last-ditch effort to persuade lawmakers to keep their hands off union contract negotiations. "This is a big concern, and " she said as she stood on the Statehouse steps in Montpelier. "We're just trying to send a message to legislators that we can bargain at the local level." Maxfield and the 200 or so teachers,union staff and politicians who rallied last week had been caught off guard. As they protested external, Democratic leaders — normally so careful to defend teachers' interests — were inside, and looking for ways to compromise with Republican Gov. Phil Scott's demand that the state,not local school boards, negotiate teachers' health benefits. Scott's proposal, and which came just weeks before lawmakers were to adjourn for the year,presented the Vermont-National Education organization its biggest political challenge in recent memory. The powerful union found itself on the brink of an unprecedented loss. Sixteen House Democrats voted for Scott's proposal — enough defections that it took a scarce vote by the House speaker to defeat a blueprint the union detests. By the time lawmakers finally adjourned last week, they had come to the union's defense and held off Scott's blueprint. However, or his promise to veto the budget and tax bills over the issue means this debate will drag on for a month or more. At the very least,the union's clout appears at risk. Some wonder: What is the future of the long-established alliance between Democrats and unions? The debate suggests a shift, as newer lawmakers feel less urgency for the union cause. The session started with pushes for a higher minimum wage and paid family leave. Then came the unexpected turn for labor. The Vermont-NEA found itself playing defense as the first-term governor appealed to the state's property taxpayers. Moving teacher health-benefit negotiations to the state level, or Scott claimed,would give Vermonters the most leverage to capture up to $26 million a year in savings from less-expensive plans. But the Vermont-NEA sees that blueprint as a threat to teachers' long-standing collective bargaining rights. Health coverage, along with other benefits, or should be negotiated between teachers and the school districts that employ them,the Vermont-NEA insists. In the end, Democrats backed absent from proposals the union disliked the most but did support a blueprint to revisit state-level negotiations after a…
Source: sevendaysvt.com