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Miami-Dade teachers approve new health contract
Feb 14, 2012 (The Miami Herald - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) --
Miami-Dade teachers and school staff voted in favor of a new health care agreement with the school district Monday.
Approved by 63 percent of about 7,400 teachers and support staff who participated in the online vote, the contract calls for some to pay more out of pocket to cover their dependents and features a limited pharmacy network that provides cheaper prescriptions -- all part of an effort to keep rising costs down for the school district.
Health insurance coverage accounts for $408 million in spending for the Miami-Dade Public School System and was expected to increase $65 million this year. The district turned to the teachers union to negotiate a contract that would cut costs and share some of the price increases between the teachers and other employees and the district.
"I think this shows that people are very practical," Karen Aronowitz, president of the United Teachers of Dade, said after the results were released. "They see that other employees have had to give up some of their salary to fund their health care, but they're still upset that the kind of money they should be earning at this time is not available as the state continues to underfund education."
The free employee-only coverage option used by most teachers remains in tact.
The online vote was slammed by longtime UTD critic Shawn Beightol, a high school chemistry teacher who has two pending complaints with the state seeking to overthrow two previous online union votes because he contends the system was unreliable and not secure.
Beightol said he has a 16-page list of union members who are unable to receive union e-mails with voting instructions to their district accounts, and therefore were disenfranchised from this vote.
Aronowitz said union leaders felt the online vote was the "best way to go."
___ (c)2012 The Miami Herald Visit The Miami Herald at www.miamiherald.com
Distributed by MCT Information Services
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