Representatives of both sides appeared before the board for about five minutes yesterday and the panel agreed that an impasse exists. Two weeks ago, the labor board ordered the teachers to review the state's financial books. Davis Yogi, the state's chief negotiator, said union officials looked at the numbers, but neither side would budge on contract demands. The state's final offer calls for no raise in the first two years of a proposed four-year contract and a 9 percent raise over the final two years. The HSTA is seeking 22 percent over the four years.
Pay is the only issue still on the bargaining table.
But, she said, the union will continue to negotiate and has not set a deadline for a strike vote. We're not unsympathetic to the argument that the state's making. Teachers are taxpayers, too. But the alternative to not settling on an adequate salary increase is not pleasant to contemplate. Yogi would not say how much more the state is willing to offer the teachers.