Local teachers express frustration with low pay

MIAMI (WSVN) -- The United Teachers of Dade are going public with their frustrations about their salaries and their rising cost in health care.

Teachers in Miami-Dade were divided just one day before elections for the United Teachers of Dade Union. The UTD union represents public state teachers in the county. A group of teachers gathered outside the UTD building on 22nd Street and Biscayne Boulevard, Monday. The group was protesting the current administration and calling for a change. The main reason being that teachers believe the current administration and the candidates they support are responsible for teachers having less pay and having an increase in health care cost.

The group called for teachers to vote for new leaders in the union. The group said, it's time for a change and time to bring in a new administration, with hopes that it will possibly bring in higher salaries and lower their health care cost.

One Teacher who supports the change, Larcenia Dixon said, "My health care insurance was going to go up an additional $250 per month. I was already paying $600 per month and I had to make a choice. So, I had to choose to get rid of it, because I couldn't afford the cost of living."

Union candidate, Sandy Simon added, "Everybody screams, "'We wanna have choice, we wanna have choice.'" The district is not gonna give us choice. They're self-insured so that's a third party administrator and that's the cost of health care going up all over."

On the other side, the current administration said some of these issues are out of their hands. They believe the reason teachers are seeing less pay is because higher taxes, something the union and the district have no control over.

The election for UTD officers is scheduled for Tuesday Feb. 19.

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