In a landslide vote, the North Pocono teachers union agreed Wednesday night to authorize a strike as they seek a new contract.
At a general membership meeting, the North Pocono Education Association voted 173-1 to authorize a strike but no date has been set.
"North Pocono teachers are one of the few districts in the state that have never had a labor dispute that resulted in a strike," NPEA President Jeanne Yazinski wrote in a statement emailed to The Times-Tribune. "All we are asking for is a reasonable salary schedule."
Also in the statement, the union president said teachers had taken a "two-year freeze" and have worked without a contract since July.
In the email with the statement about the union vote, Ms. Yazinski said she was not available to speak and referred comments to a regional union representative of the Pennsylvania State Education Association.
The vote comes just days after the union and the North Pocono School District were scheduled to meet to further negotiate. However, Monday's meeting was canceled because of bad weather.
North Pocono School District solicitor Joseph O'Brien said district officials "were very disappointed by the union's decision to strike." He said the strike would "hurt one group of people - the students" and hoped the union would reconsider the decision.
By state law, the union must provide 48 hours' notice before a strike takes place.
Mr. O'Brien disputed that teachers have had a two-year salary freeze and pointed to the contract between the school district and teachers union that lasted from July 1, 2007, to June 30, 2012. The contract gave teachers pay raises of nearly 4 percent each year.
Mr. O'Brien said with no new contract, teachers did not receive a pay raise this school year but continue to work under the terms of the existing contract.
A major sticking point in negotiations, Mr. O'Brien said, involved the school district asking teachers to pay a portion of their health insurance premiums. Currently, teachers pay only co-pays and deductibles.
"That's something extremely unrealistic," Mr. O'Brien said of teachers not paying a portion of health insurance premiums. "They're about the only people left on the planet who don't pay any of their health care."
During the summer, the union voted to reject a fact-finding report by the state Labor Relations Board. Ms. Yazinski has previously said raises recommended in a fact-finding report wouldn't offset union members paying a proposed 7 percent in health insurance premiums.
Contact the writer: rward@timesshamrock.com, @rwardTT on Twitter