This is from NBC Boston:
Schools in Dedham, Massachusetts, will be canceled on Friday as the school board anticipated a strike, which the teachers union overwhelmingly authorized in a vote Thursday afternoon.
The dispute is over the teachers' new contract, which the Dedham School Committee said has been under negotiation for nearly two years. An alert on the schools' page said all grades should not report on Friday.
"It's not what we want to do," said Tim Dwyer, the union's president. "We really want to focus on what we do, which is teaching kid. The idea that we now have to stand out in front and close the schools is sad."
"It has been very frustrating," said Rachel Dudley, the union's bargaining chair. "To feel like our voices aren't being heard by the other side."
The issues:
The two sides have been arguing over several issues, including salaries and health care. There is also disagreement over the sexual harassment policy, student cellphone use in class and unpaid hours for professional development.
The vote on the strike was 275-2. (No truth to the rumor that the two who voted no are the same two who comment on this blog that we should stop paying union dues. We need a real union now in NYC!)
The unlawfulness of the job action from CBS Boston:
It’s against the law for teachers to strike in Massachusetts. Before the Dedham teachers walked out, the Massachusetts Department of Labor Relations issued an order not to strike.
“We know that it’s disruptive, and they know that it’s disruptive, but they know that it’s important and that our work environment is their learning environment,” said Dedham Education Association President Tim Dwyer.
The last teacher strike in Massachusetts was back in 2007 in Quincy. Teachers were on the picket line for five days. At one point, a judge ordered them back to work because they were breaking the law. When the Quincy teachers refused, the union was fined daily.
“It is illegal, it’s not criminal, and we spend a lot of time teaching our students to stand up for ourselves and stand up for what’s right, and our members decided that it was time for us to stand up for what we feel is right,” Dedham Educators Association member Rachel Dudley told WBZ-TV.
Right now there is a movement of workers across the country who are taking back their power at a scale we have not seen in recent memory. I stand with educators in Dedham, Massachusetts. This takes courage. twitter.com/_ericblanc/sta…
but not us
ReplyDeleteNever us. We just complain anonymously.
ReplyDeleteElizabeth Warren and Randi Weingarten can rally with Chicago teachers and leave UFT members behind. Chicago class sizes are lower than NY City. Randi lowered our fixed-TDA account to 7% 10 years ago losing us thousands of dollars. WAIT TILL IN SERVICE UFT'ERS SEE HOW CRAPPY OUR RETIREE DRUG PLAN IS . Just go to PSCCUNYWF.ORG and see for yourselves. Why can a smaller union like PSCCUNY have a BMW drug plan compared to UFT?
ReplyDeleteWow, thanks mulgrew.
ReplyDelete"What we negotiated in the 2018 contract was a series of new steps and deadlines to resolve the overages in every district, so only the most intractable cases go to arbitration." #ClassSize
Is the retiree drug plan different? Isn’t it just the Welfare Fund plan?
ReplyDeleteMaybe its because teachers are idiots...Still asking about retro. "Hold up, we get per session retro?" This contract was signed on May 1, 2014. No wonder we are doormats.
ReplyDeleteRetiree drug plan is different. Not as good as active.
ReplyDelete