Teacher grievance

Under state law, increases in contribution rates to the Public Employees Retirement System are to be shared equally between employers and employees. For the fiscal year starting July 1, the contribution rate is scheduled to increase by 2.25 percent to 23.75 percent.

So the Clark County School District has moved to lower salaries by 1.125 percent to help pay for an increase in their pension costs starting Friday, the start of the new fiscal year.

Teachers and support staff unions responded by saying that's fine; in this economy, they're glad to still have jobs in nice, air-conditioned work places.

No, no, of course they didn't say that. Teachers and support staff unions responded by saying they plan to file grievances with the district and complain to the Local Government Employee-Management Relations Board.

Brian Christensen, executive director of the Education Support Employees Association, and Ruben Murillo, president of the Clark County Education Association, both said the district was acting unilaterally before formal labor negotiations have begun.

"I think it sets a really negative tone for negotiations," Mr. Murillo said. "We haven't even set a date yet (for negotiations), and they're already arbitrarily cutting teachers' salaries. Not a positive message to send to the teachers of Clark County."

The district had asked Clark County District Judge Jessie Walsh to clarify whether PERS costs can be passed along to employees if new contracts aren't in place by the start of the new fiscal year, but the judge replied she had no jurisdiction.

Regardless of the minutiae of what's allowed under current collective bargaining law -- though make no mistake, that law has been tailored to the union's wishes by a shamefully docile Legislature -- it's increasingly clear that many of these well-padded government workers "just don't get it."

The school employees are asked to shift 1.125 percent of their pay -- endlessly larded with COLAs, "step" raises, seniority pay, and the like -- into a "matching" contribution for one of the most lucrative "defined-benefit" pension plans known to mankind, and their answer is to file a grievance?

Do these folks drive the same streets -- past the same empty store fronts -- as the rest of us?