NORWALK, Conn. – A delay in signing the contract for the Norwalk Federation of Teachers is “no big deal,” union President Bruce Mellion said Thursday.
“I don’t think that’s the way to do business,” Mellion said about an announcement made Tuesday by Board of Education member Mike Barbis.
Barbis said at Tuesday’s BOE meeting that the absolutely final version of the NFT contract was done. “Even though the arbitrator ruled in 2012 and the contract is in effect July 1, 2013, the contract was never finalized and it was never signed by the union. So it is now done, it is official,” he said.
On Thursday, Barbis said the contract is not finalized after all.
“Turns out there is still one issu,e but Mellion has not disclosed what it is,” he wrote in an email. “I don’t understand why this has dragged out. Apparently there were some minor edits that have dragged on and on.”
Mellion agreed that “it’s taking a very long time.”
“We want to make sure it’s 110 percent correct,” he said.
Agreements are made and sent back and forth with a lot of details, he said.
“You have the agreement and then you go forward with it and then it’s a question of printing it up. That’s how it’s been,” he said.
He expects it to be really finalized within a week or two, he said.
“No big deal,” he said.
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