Morton: Ala. teachers should pay more for health insurance, retirement to offset budget cuts

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Alabama schools Superintendent Joe Morton unveiled a plan to deal with budget cuts for fiscal year 2011 partly by making teachers pay more for health insurance and retirement benefits.

Union claims Calif.-based firm took fees of $15K from La. teachers recruited in Philippines

NEW ORLEANS — A teachers’ union is claiming that a California-based firm that recruited teachers from the Philippines to work in Louisiana schools made the educators pay fees of $15,000 or more.

6 of 7 units of Hawaii’s largest state worker union ratifies new two-year contract

HONOLULU — Six of seven units of Hawaii’s largest state employee union on Monday ratified a new two-year contract that calls for 42 furlough days through June 2011.

Hawaii reducing school year and closing classrooms on Fridays amid recession

HONOLULU — At a time when President Barack Obama is pushing for more time in the classroom, his home state has created the nation’s shortest school year under a new union contract that closes schools on most Fridays for the remainder of the academic calendar.

Jamaica’s government pledges to pay public school teachers $90 million in back wages

KINGSTON, Jamaica — The government of Jamaica has agreed to pay public school teachers more than $90 million in back wages over the next three years.

White House tells agencies to avoid even appearance of political influence in awarding grants

WASHINGTON — White House officials told agencies across the government Tuesday they should take care to avoid even the appearance that politics played a part in the award of federal grants.

Recognizing mutual economic peril, Atlantic City casinos and unions seek to prevent strike

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — The contract between most of Atlantic City’s 11 casinos and the workers who keep them clean and stocked with food and drink expired Tuesday, but both sides plan to continue talks.

A year after Zimbabwe’s power-sharing deal, schools have little to celebrate

HIGHFIELD, Zimbabwe — Stinking waste flows into the yard from the classroom toilets of B Block. Teachers hold lessons in the shade of trees outside: Much of the schoolroom furniture is piled into heaps of broken wood.

Wash. teachers approve agreement to end strike and return to work

SEATTLE — Teachers in Washington state’s fourth-largest school district have approved a new contract and are heading back to the classroom.

WA union official: Tentative agreement reached aimed at ending nation’s only teacher strike

KENT, Wash. — Contract negotiators reached a tentative agreement Sunday night aimed at ending a teacher strike in Washington, the only such walkout in the nation, a union official said.

Labor dispute shuts down Washington school district and is the only teacher strike in nation

KENT, Wash. — On what was scheduled to be the first day of school, students and teachers at Mill Creek Middle School never made it through the front door. They stood or sat outside by the flagpole, waving signs and yelling at passing motorists.

Judge threatens to fine striking Wash. teachers unless they return to work Monday

KENT, Wash. — Striking teachers have until Monday to get back to the classroom in Washington state’s fourth-largest school district or be fined $200 day, a judge ruled Thursday.

Profs at suburban Detroit university reach tentative 3-year deal, end strike, return to class

ROCHESTER, Mich. — Students reported for class Thursday at a suburban Detroit university hours after professors reached a tentative agreement that ended a weeklong strike.