Vocational Teachers Say Talks Are Stalled Their Contract Is Up At Month's End. Other Teacher Negotiations Are The Stumbling Block, They Say.

FALLS TOWNSHIP — Overshadowed by the rancorous nature of negotiations with teachers in both Bristol Township and Bristol Borough, contract talks for vocational teachers serving students from those two and four other Lower Bucks school districts seem headed toward impasse.

The four-year contract for the 45- member Bucks County Vocational Technical School Education Association expires at the end of this month. According to Paul Frame, vo-tech teacher and union negotiator, "We've been talking since January, but there has not been a whole lot of movement on any of the significant issues."

As is the case in other area contract negotiations, the two sticking points concern the size of any salary increase and the nature of health- care coverage.

Frame said the teachers were asking for a 5 percent increase in their salaries the first year of the contract, the rest negotiable. The present

average is $50,000 a year. He said the increase would put teachers' wages on a par with other teachers in the region.

The school, which has 1,400 students, provides vocational education for the school districts of Bristol Borough, Bristol Township, Bensalem, Morrisville, Neshaminy and Pennsbury. Each district pays according to the number of students it sends to the school.

Classes consist of two years of training in vocations such as auto body and air-conditioning repair.

Frame said the teachers hoped to maintain health insurance coverage similar to the Blue Cross insurance now provided. "We now have a menu of health-care choices," he said. "They're proposing a personal choice program that would limit the options."

Ellis Katz, the school board's solicitor and head negotiator, declined to comment on the specific nature of negotiations other than to note that "there still remain a number of unresolved issues."

Asked what he thought might occur if the contract were not resolved by the Aug. 31 deadline, Katz said: "You need to ask the union what their intentions are."

Frame accused the school board of waiting until contracts are reached with teachers in Bristol Borough and Bristol Township before entering into serious negotiations. "I don't know why they're just postponing the inevitable."

John R. Petras, who serves on both the Bristol Township and the vo-tech school boards, denied the charge. "Whether we reach an agreement with those other unions has nothing to do with it," he said.

Teachers in Bristol Township have been without a contract since January 1993. Earlier this year they held a seven-day strike.

Petras predicted that unless the vo-tech teachers agreed to a reduction in their health-care coverage, a deadlock could result. "They've got to back away from this gimme, gimme attitude," he said. "The time for raising taxes has passed. It's not going to happen on my watch."