FLINT -- Flint teachers will take a seven percent pay cut in a collective bargaining agreement they reached last week and school board members approved Wednesday night.
Under the contract, teachers' salaries' will be cut five percent. An additional two percent cut will come through furlough days.
Flint teachers have been working for two years without a union contract. Union president Ethel Johnson said they’re biting the bullet because the alternative - more layoffs or a state takeover - won't be any better for students.
"We felt like we were punched in the gut,” Johnson said of the new contract terms. “But we also know that this district is in financial trouble, although none of it was caused by us. We want to do what's best for children, which is why our staff - 89 percent - were willing to take a pay cut."
Johnson added she thinks this contract is a step in the right direction, though she said the pay cut is a personal sacrifice for most teachers.
The new contract is good until August 2014.
