Why Collective Bargaining Matters
Collective bargaining enhances educational excellence and ensures educational employees a voice in their professional lives. Employees should be fairly compensated in line with their experience and training. State law should be expanded to provide employees with shared decision-making on curricular and other instructional issues. CTA believes in and supports strategies that promote affordable healthcare, including prescription drugs, for all Californians.
Our Position on Protecting Collective Bargaining Rights
Because collective bargaining promotes educational excellence, all segments of education should employ the process. State law should be expanded to require school boards to negotiate procedures and methods for involving teachers in decisions that shape curriculum, peer assistance, and other professional and instructional matters.
Compensation
CTA believes that educational employees should be professionally compensated for what they know and do. Criteria such as teaching, curricular development, staff development, and site based decision-making responsibilities may be incorporated into compensation plans. All school and community college districts and the California State University system must have salary schedules/structures and employer-paid fringe benefit programs that will attract and retain scholarly, intelligent, creative, and dedicated personnel. CTA opposes “merit systems,” statewide salary schedules, differentiated staffing programs, and new taxes on employer-paid employee benefits.
Health Care
All Californians should have affordable, fully paid health care including prescription drugs. Plans must cover domestic partners and retired members for life. Health care proposals must incorporate universal access to quality comprehensive coverage, and coverage for all including those unable to pay, with no State and or Federal taxes on health care or other benefits. Effective health care cost management can be accomplished only through the provision of adequate cost data from both insurers and providers. CTA believes all educational employees have a right to employer-provided comprehensive health and welfare benefits programs, including healthcare, dental care, vision care, life insurance and income protection for employees and retirees and their spouse/domestic partner and dependents.
Union Access To Represented Workers
CTA believes every educator has the right and obligation to participate fully in professional associations. The ability of unions to communicate with the employees it represents is necessary to ensure the effectiveness of state labor relations, and unions cannot carry out their legal obligations unless unions are able convey to represented workers the rights and obligations created by the contract and the role of the union. Improving this meaningful communication is necessary for harmonious public employment relations and is a matter of statewide concern.
