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Seminole Employees Act Now

Since May, your bargaining team has attempted to negotiate in good faith with the bargaining team representing Seminole County Public Schools (SCPS) in an effort to reach an agreement on employees' salaries. You may read the log of negotiation updates and view proposed salary schedules on the Seminole UniServ Web site.

Your bargaining team assessed the District's resources (a matter of public record), investigated the District's expenditures, and proposed a reasonable salary schedule. In the spirit of compromise, your team has offered amended proposals. Unfortunately, the District's team has remained adamant in its claims of poverty throughout the process.

Superintendent Vogel communicated said claims in a district-wide email to all employees, an act that spurred the filing of an Unfair Labor Practice charge for a violation of Florida's bargaining law prohibiting direct bargaining with individuals represented by a bargaining agent, your local employee association. The charge has been deemed to have merit and will be adjudicated in the near future.

Seminole County School Board member Diane Bauer has gone on the record by saying, "They [teachers] are not going to get a penny...!"

Meanwhile, the School Board continues business as usual and persists in spending irrationally on every new educational gimmick that comes down the pike, wasting taxpayer money on frivolous and unproven programs, hiring high-priced consultants to train the same teachers that have earned the District a grade of "A" for years running, and misusing its current workforce.

Due to the inflexibility on the part of the District's team throughout negotiations, your bargaining team has filed a declaration of impasse with the Public Employee Relations Commission (PERC). A special magistrate will soon be named. He or she will review the proposals from both teams and recommend a settlement.

Your team is confident that the special magistrate will acknowledge the merits of its proposal. However, Florida law gives the School Board the option to disregard any recommended settlement and impose a salary schedule of their choosing.

In anticipation of such a scenario, Seminole UniServ asks that all employees participate in a letter writing campaign urging School Board members to make their employees' welfare a priority and demonstrate that they value their employees by agreeing to a fair and just salary schedule. We hope that thousands of pleas will encourage School Board members to reconsider our salary proposal.

Below is a sample letter to the School Board. You may send the sample letter or, to personalize it [preferred], you may edit both the subject and body.

Add your voice!