Published: July 04, 2009 11:44 pm      

Penn Highlands, teachers union ink 5-year deal

Pennsylvania Highlands Community College and the American Federation of Teachers reached a contractual agreement on Wednesday.

The five-year contract is the longest in the school’s history as all other agreements extended only three years. It covers

23 full-time and 45 regular part-time union employees.

School officials said they believe the contract is solid and provides faculty the protection they deserve while providing stronger guidance on advancement toward promotion and tenure.

One element of the contract was the formation of an administrative and faculty committee to help resolve issues of clarity to assist in the prevention of grievances.

“The Admin-Faculty Committee will actually help us write the next contract as it will identify problem areas in the current contract and offer recommendations to correct those problems,” Walter J. Asonevich, college president, said.

“Those recommendations will result in new contract language, dramatically reducing the negotiation time required for the next contract to be approved.”

Prior to negotiations, the school enlisted the knowledge of Cornell University’s Institute of Labor Relations to train the negotiating teams in interest-based bargaining.