Current Bargaining Agreement
2020 - 2022
The first-ever statewide school employee healthcare package came as the result of more than a year of preparation and bargaining. As you know, the final agreement came about after a neutral arbitrator chose the union-crafted plan over one submitted by the Vermont School Boards Association.
The arbitrator’s decision is binding on school boards and more than 40,000 school employees and their families. The current healthcare agreement expires on Dec. 31, 2022.
Unlike the process in place when local school boards and local associations reach impasse, the law creating statewide healthcare bargaining forced the arbitrator to choose only one side’s proposal rather than craft a pact that takes elements from each.
In short, the new statewide healthcare plan will mandate how much public school employees pay for premiums and out-of-pocket expenses, how out-of-pocket expenses are administered, who is eligible for healthcare, and how grievances related to healthcare are handled.
We know you’ll have questions, and we encourage you to ask them at healthcarequestions@vtnea.org.
Previous Updates
Last Best Offers Now Before Arbitrator
2019 Statewide Bargaining Proposal from Vermont-NEA & AFSCME
As statewide representatives of tens of thousands of unionized and non-unionized public school employees and their families, Vermont-NEA and AFSCME believe access to high-quality, affordable health care for all school employees and their dependents is absolutely essential to the recruitment and retention on high-quality teachers, educational support professionals and administrators.
Updated side-by-side comparison of proposals.
Summary
Although this information is merely a summary, it does contain the most pertinent information needed to understand the key points in the proposals we are advocating.
Read the preliminary proposal summary.
Counter Proposals
Vermont-NEA and AFSCME Counter Proposal