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Live updates: Educators on the North Shore are on strike
Educators in Beverly and Marblehead are still on strike, after Gloucester educators ended their strike when they reached a tentative agreement with the district.
Class is canceled for two North Shore school districts amid an ongoing educators’ strike.
Educators in Beverly and Gloucester began their strike Friday, Nov. 8, and Marblehead teachers and paraprofessionals followed their lead beginning Tuesday, Nov. 12. The Gloucester union ended its strike on Friday, Nov. 22 after reached a tentative deal with the school district.
The North Shore unions, which are all associated with the Massachusetts Teachers Association, have called for for increased wages for teachers and paraprofessionals, improved paid parental leave benefits, and other points like school safety and class sizes.
Follow along here for regular updates on the strikes.
Beverly, Marblehead teacher strikes continue, missing Sunday deadline (Nov. 24)
While Gloucester schools are set to reopen Monday, students in Beverly and Marblehead won’t be returning to class despite a court-ordered Sunday deadline to end the two-week teacher strike.
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Beverly educators said in a press conference Sunday night that negotiations are at a standstill over paraprofessional wages. In Marblehead, the School Committee ended negotiations before 9 p.m., the educators union said in a statement.
Both unions were ordered by a Essex Superior Court judge to cease their strike by 6 p.m. Sunday, a deadline which was not met. Now, a court-ordered neutral fact-finder or panel of fact-finders will begin to help the unions and School Committees reach a contract.
Marblehead School Committee member Jenn Schaeffner is preparing for the fact-finder, who is a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor, to issue a ruling after hearings from Dec. 2 through 4, the Marblehead Current reported.
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BTA leadership doesn’t want the fact-finder, they said during a press conference Sunday night, because the process will not be completed until Dec. 4.
“We’re so close to a deal,” co-president Julia Brotherton said. The union was dismissed at 10 p.m. Sunday and won’t be back at the bargaining table until 1 p.m. Monday, she said.
Beverly School Committee Chair Rachael Abell said the BTA “is not seriously considering our offers” and it’s “disappointing” that the union won’t participate in the state-ordered fact-finding.
“We hope the educators return to work on Tuesday and join us at state-ordered fact-finding as directed by the court,” Abell wrote in a statement. “Our community has been through a lot and, unfortunately, the pain of this illegal strike continues tomorrow.”
Unions say funds are depleted as strike begins to eat into school vacation time (Nov. 20)
As the North Shore teachers strike stretches through its second week, unions are running out of cash, and school districts are beginning to consider upcoming vacation time as make-up days.
School was canceled for the ninth day Thursday in Gloucester and Beverly, and the eighth day in Marblehead. The Newton teacher strike earlier this year was 11 days.
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The unions are racking up hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines, which are meant to be coercive fines to get them back into classrooms. However, the unions say they’re running out of cash and are arguing in court that increasing the fines is unjustly punitive, not coercive.
The MEA in Marblehead said in court that the $50,000 fine on the first day of the strike depleted about 80 percent of their cash. The Gloucester union has also exhausted all available funds, according to court records filed Tuesday, after paying approximately $139,000 so far.
The BTA has paid $110,000 in fines from the first day of the strike but doesn’t have any additional funds to pay, according to court documents. As of Tuesday, the union has incurred a total of $350,000 in fines.
BTA Co-President Julia Brotherton said previous unions haven’t been able to pay their fines, but they “figured out ways to pay the money after the fact,” she said. “Now we understand that this has become something bigger than ourselves.”
Gloucester Teachers Association President Rachel Rex said that a deal is close, but Superintendent Ben Lummis canceled school while the union was presenting their counteroffer Wednesday night.
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In a statement, Lummis said he contacts parents by 8 p.m. nightly “in hopes of giving the process more time each day.” He said as the strike enters its ninth day, all June make-up days have been used and additional missed days will be made up with February or April vacation days.
Striking North Shore teachers appeal to governor on State House steps (Nov. 19)
The Associated Press
BOSTON (AP) — Teachers from three striking unions rallied on the steps of the Massachusetts Statehouse on Tuesday, calling on lawmakers and Democratic Gov. Maura Healey to help them reach a resolution.
The teachers arrived from Beverly, Gloucester and Marblehead, three communities north of Boston.
Margaret Rudolph, a paraprofessional in the Gloucester schools for the past 18 years, said teachers there have been working with an expired contract for more than 500 days.
“The union bargained for months, making little progress,” she told fellow teachers outside the Statehouse. “This strike was our last resort.”
Healey said as the daughter of public school teachers and union members, she has an appreciation for educators and staff, but her focus is getting students back into the classroom.
“It is unacceptable that school has been closed for more than a week in Marblehead, Gloucester and Beverly. I’m urging both parties to reach an agreement as soon as possible for the good of our kids, families, educators and staff,” Healey said Tuesday in a written statement.
Last Tuesday, judges imposed a fine of $50,000 on the unions in Beverly and Gloucester that they said would increase by $10,000 for every day the teachers remained on strike. The unions voted Nov. 7 to authorize a strike and schools have remained closed.
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Work stoppages by teachers are rare in Massachusetts, partly because state law bans public sector employees from striking.
The Beverly Teachers Association has said it was pushing for smaller class sizes in the 4,500-student district, 12 weeks of paid parental leave and a “living wage” for paraprofessionals or teachers assistants whose starting salary is $20,000.
Ruth Furlong, a special education teacher in Beverly for the past 10 years, said teachers understood that unions would face consequences, but said justice isn’t served by what she called “outright union-busting.”
Furlong said by moving slowly on negotiations, school officials let enough time lapse to allow court-ordered fines to kick in.
“Nowhere in the process of bargaining does management face consequences for not bargaining in good faith,” she said.
School officials in Beverly remain optimistic that they can reach a resolution. Students have lost seven days to the job action, Rachael Abell, chair of the Beverly School Committee, said Tuesday.
“We are already facing difficult decisions ahead about delaying graduation for seniors or using time off in February, April, or on weekends to reach the state-mandated 180 days of learning for our other students,” Abell said.
In Gloucester, the union in the 2,800-student district has asked for eight weeks of fully paid parental leave: two weeks at 75% and two weeks at 50%. It also wants significant pay increases for paraprofessionals, safer conditions for students and more prep time for elementary school teachers.
Republicans called for teachers to return to the classrooms, criticizing what they called the outsize influence of the Massachusetts Teachers Association, the state’s largest union.
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“Families are being held hostage by the MTA’s reckless and illegal actions,” said MassGOP Chair Amy Carnevale. “Parents are forced to pay out of pocket for childcare or miss work to stay home with their kids.”
Teachers and officials play blame game as strikes continue; large rally planned outside State House (Nov. 19)
Classes remained canceled in Beverly, Gloucester, and Marblehead Tuesday, as educators planned to rally outside the State House in Boston and negotiations continued with district officials.
The State House rally is set to include at least 100 representatives from each of the three striking North Shore teachers unions. They are expected to call on Gov. Maura Healey to help correct “the inadequacy of the mediation process” and advocate for increasing state education funding.
In Gloucester, Superintendent Ben Lummis offered a glimmer of optimism in an update Monday evening. He reported “significant progress” being made with a “real possibility” of a deal actually being agreed upon Monday. While that did not occur, Lummis told families and staff that they should prepare to be in school on Wednesday.
“While this is not guaranteed, we have made tangible progress towards an agreement and everyone should be ready to return to school,” he said.
But Lummis’s sunny outlook was denounced by members of the Union of Gloucester Educators, who said that “management” told “lies” about the status of negotiations Monday. They accused the district of purposefully stalling negotiations and ignoring the urgency of the situation.
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“Superintendent Lummis’ most recent statement is a reckless attempt to misinform the public on the state of negotiations and put the blame on us for management’s outright refusal to bargain with urgency,” union member Rachel Rex said.
In Beverly, negotiations appeared similarly unproductive and district officials are now floating the possibility of canceling school vacations to make up for lost time in the classroom. Beverly School Committee President Rachael Abell said in a release Monday that the Beverly Teachers Association rejected all of the proposals that were sent to them at the beginning of this week, and that she was disappointed by the lack of progress. Since state law mandates that public school students attend class for 180 days a school year, the district is exploring how to make up that time.
“Unfortunately, our options are limited and may involve canceling some or all of February or April vacation weeks, delaying graduation or weekend school. We are telling you this in the interest of transparency,” Abell said in a statement.
At a press conference, a representative from the BTA said that one of the key points of disagreement between the union and the district centered on securing higher wages for paraprofessionals. The two sides are not “far apart on wages,” but the union is committing to fighting for paraprofessionals. The union waited all of Monday for a response from school officials, and their proposal did nothing to improve “poverty wages and inhumane parental leave policies” for paraprofessionals, it said.
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Abell said Tuesday morning that she was hoping to make serious progress before making an announcement about potential school closures on Wednesday. She outlined benefits for paraprofessionals in the School Committee’s latest proposal, including a pipeline to becoming a full-time teacher and extra paid leave beginning next school year.
And in Marblehead, union representatives said they participated in face-to-face negotiations Monday and reported progress being made on the topic of improving job security for paraprofessionals. But the district needs to make more concessions on parental leave and wage increases, they said. Educators are advocating for a tax override to increase teacher salaries, citing figures that show how the average teacher’s salary in Marblehead lags behind that of teachers in similar communities. No tentative agreements had been reached as of Monday evening. Negotiations resumed Tuesday morning.
Beverly teachers petition to remove mayor, School Committee members as strike continues (Nov. 17)
Beverly teachers are calling for a recall election to remove the mayor and two Beverly School Committee members after weekend negotiations failed to open schools for class on Monday.
At a press conference Sunday evening, Beverly Teachers Association Co-President Andrea Sherman said their negotiations ended early because “management has no interest to actually bargain with us.”
Sherman said the School Committee is waiting for the result of a court hearing Monday. The union’s strike is illegal as public sector employees in Massachusetts are not allowed to strike, and the educators have already been fined more than $100,000.
“It is evident to all of us that the mayor wants pain from educators,” Sherman said. “Tomorrow, the School Committee will argue they have no obligation to bargain with us. That has been painfully obvious over the last 11 days. They’re waiting for the courts to punish educators.”
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The BTA is circulating a petition to remove Mayor Mike Cahill, School Committee Chair Rachael Abell, and Member Jeffrey Silva. The petition was available to sign at local schools on Friday. If the union collects enough signatures throughout Beverly and from particular wards for the committee members, the officials would either resign or face a special election, according to the city charter.
“I’ve said that we will do whatever it takes to settle this contract, and I really did mean that,” Sherman said when asked about the petition. “We are exploring any avenue we can so we can quickly get back to school.”
Cahill said in a statement that “each of us were elected to our positions to serve our community and do this critically important work. We are solely focused on trying to get this contract settled, and our children back in school and learning.
The BTA has been on strike since Nov. 8. In a community update, the School Committee said they hope the union is reviewing their latest offer “seriously.”
“We are disappointed by refusals by the BTA leadership to negotiate or alter their demands on issues like salaries and to change baseline agreements like the length of the contract in a way that moves the goal posts and sets us further back,” Abell wrote.
School is also still canceled in Gloucester and Marblehead after negotiations did not yield a contract over the weekend.
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Marblehead officials reverse course on extracurriculars ban (Nov. 14)
When the Marblehead teachers strike kicked off, district officials said they would suspend all extracurricular and athletic activities until educators went back to work. The decision drew immediate backlash from parents, students, teachers, and coaches. Now, Superintendent John Robidoux is changing course.
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The district will use “non-teacher, non-union personnel” to staff extracurriculars this weekend, he announced in a press release Thursday.
“After taking time to do my due diligence and meet with the athletic director and our administrative team, I have determined that we can equitably and safely allow for high school athletic and extracurricular activities to take place as scheduled this weekend,” Robidoux said in the release.
The initial decision to cancel the extracurriculars was made because a majority of the programs are supervised by striking union members. It would have been unfair for students, since some would have had access to extracurriculars while others would not due to the availability of the union members. Robidoux also voiced concerns about legal liability for the district over the potential for the unfair treatment of disabled students.
In response, a group of Marblehead students and their parents filed an emergency motion in court to have the ban withdrawn. Groups of union and non-union coaches for various Marblehead teams filed affidavits in support of the request to end the ban.
A series of important extracurricular events are scheduled for the coming days that would not have been possible to make up in the event that the ban remained. This includes a Division 4 quarterfinals football game Friday night in Grafton, a performing arts showcase for seniors, a field trip to the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and a cross country state championship meet.
“This is just a small step in normalizing the student’s experience during these challenging times. As the leader, I will continue to monitor the ongoing situation and make decisions accordingly. I remain cautiously optimistic that the ongoing mediation will result in an agreement and students will be back within the classrooms in short order,” Robidoux said.
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The Marblehead Education Association said it was “thrilled” by the decision to reverse course on the ban in a statement posted to Facebook.
“Holding our students out of sports and other extracurricular activities was first and foremost a CHOICE, and a completely unnecessary one,” the union said. “We now hope that they will similarly reverse course regarding their refusal to meet with us face to face in bargaining, another completely unnecessary CHOICE.”
As strikes continue and fines mount, unions and school officials battle in court (Nov. 14)
Union sues the School Committee in Beverly
School was canceled again on Thursday in Beverly, as striking teachers sued the School Committee.
The Beverly Teachers Association filed a lawsuit with the Department of Labor Relations, alleging that the School Committee has been bargaining in bad faith. The union, which has been on strike for almost a week, said in a release that they have been committed to “working around the clock” to find a resolution to the labor dispute.
The School Committee, however, is enacting a strategy of stalling until a judge orders fines against the union to forcibly end the strike, the BTA said.
“Mayor Cahill and the School Committee are using the law as a tactic to delay negotiations,” Judy Martin, a preschool paraprofessional at the McKeown School, said in a statement. “They know the Judge will fine us. They also know we don’t have a lot of resources to pay those fines. My paraprofessional colleagues make only $20,000 per year. So we’re faced with two options: continue to live in poverty or hope the School Committee bargains with us before the judge bankrupts our union.
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“Let’s be clear. We’re doing this for moral reasons,” Martin wrote. “So even if we get fined, this strike will continue until we win a contract that keeps our students safe, gives our students longer lunch and recess, has paid parental leave, and a living wage for all educators in the BTA.”
A judge ordered the BTA to pay a $50,000 fine Wednesday. Fines are set to increase by $10,000 a day for each additional school day that the strike continues. The BTA is remaining “uncompromising” in negotiations, Beverly School Committee Chair Rachael Abell said in a statement.
The BTA is seeking relief through a complaint filed with the DLR Wednesday. The union also filed a prohibited practice charge with the DLR because cameras were apparently being monitored in the BTA’s bargaining room inside the McKeown school. BTA representatives raised concerns about the cameras with a state-appointed mediator, and state officials ordered the parties to move negotiations to Hannah Elementary School. This resulted in hours of more delays, the union said.
The concerns about the cameras were brought up by BTA members for the first time on Wednesday, Abell said in a statement.
“Cameras are used in common spaces in virtually every public school across the nation for safety reasons. The camera in the space where the BTA is meeting does not record audio and has not been monitored since negotiations began,” she said.
Marbleheaders fight over extracurriculars
As a strike continues in Marblehead, different factions are using the legal system to fight over district officials’ decision to suspend all extracurricular and athletic activities until the work stoppage ends. The majority of the events that would have taken place this week would have been staffed by striking union members, Superintendent John Robidoux wrote in an affidavit filed in Essex County Superior Court. That suspension went into effect Tuesday.
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The Marblehead School Committee initially proposed that the Marblehead Education Association forgo a strike and that the district free up members of the union’s bargaining committee during the day to work towards a resolution with a state mediator. The MEA refused, prompting the decision to cancel extracurriculars.
Since the “large majority” of athletic programs and other extracurriculars are supervised by union members, it would be unfair for them to “pick and choose when they are available to students,” Robidoux wrote, as it would mean some students could access extracurriculars while others could not. There are also legal liability concerns over the potential for disabled students to be shut out of education they are legally entitled to while non-disabled students “participate in events that are a privilege and not a right.”
Among the events facing disruption are a Division 4 quarter-finals football game Friday night in Grafton, a performing arts showcase for seniors, a field trip to Boston Symphony Orchestra, a cross country state championship meet, and a robotics competition, according to court documents.
A group of Marblehead students and their parents filed an emergency motion of injunctive relief in Essex Superior Court Tuesday requesting that the court order district officials to withdraw the extracurricular ban. Marblehead teams would be forced to forfeit these contests, which are not able to be rescheduled.
“In essence, students, who have diligently been working hard for years to achieve their personal goals, team goals, and club goals will be irreparably harmed, as this is not a bell that can be unrung,” the plaintiffs wrote in a complaint.
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Groups of union and non-union coaches for various Marblehead teams filled affidavits in support of the request to end the extracurricular ban.
Beverly, Gloucester educator unions face $50,000 or more in fines (Nov. 13)
A judge levied $50,000 fines against both the Beverly and Gloucester teachers unions for refusing to return to work Wednesday evening.
The Beverly Teachers Association and the Union of Gloucester Educators, which includes the Gloucester Teachers Association and the Gloucester Association of Education Paraprofessionals, have been on strike since Friday. The Marblehead Education Association began their strike Tuesday, and fines for them are expected to begin Thursday.
The BTA was found in civil contempt for refusing to return to work, and Judge Janice Howe ordered the union to pay $50,000 to the state’s general fund by the end of Thursday. The coercive fines will increase by $10,000 each day.
The GTA will owe the same, while the GAEP was ordered to pay $15,000 by the end of Thursday. Fines will increase by $5,000 each day for the paraprofessional union.
Educators in Beverly then filed a lawsuit with the Department of Labor Relations alleging that their School Committee has not been bargaining in good faith.
“Almost every night since the strike commenced, the state-appointed mediator dismissed us because of the lack of movement from the School Committee,” BTA Co-President Andrea Sherman said in a statement. “It’s clear to us now that they have no intent to work with us and reopen schools. Are they waiting until the court punishes educators?”
School Committee Chair Rachael Abell said the judge imposing fines “confirms what we have maintained since the strike was called six days ago.”
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“BTA is fully capable of returning to school to educate the students of Beverly while they continue to negotiate with the School Committee, “ Abell said. “Now, BTA members face the costly burden of higher union dues each day they remain out on strike.”
Unions face court orders, potential fines as North Shore educators strikes continue (Nov. 12)
Public employees, including teachers, do not have the legal right to strike in Massachusetts. But, unionized educators still have authorized strikes in districts including Newton, Andover, and Brookline in recent years.
Educators in three North Shore districts — Marblehead, Beverly, and Gloucester — are currently striking amid contract negotiations. But when teachers strike illegally, what happens next?
Earlier this year, Newton teachers went on strike for a record-breaking 11 days. The NTA ignored injunctions to get them back into the classroom, and a judge fined the Newton Teachers Association more than $600,000.
On the North Shore, a judge has not ruled on any fines that could be levied at the unions as of Tuesday. The Beverly Teachers Association and the Union of Gloucester Educators, which includes the teachers and paraprofessionals union, were both ordered back to work in a court order on Friday, which both unions have ignored.
School was still canceled as of Tuesday. The Commonwealth Employment Relations Board filed complaints to hold the BTA and the UGE in contempt for refusing to return to work.
Marblehead’s strike began a few days after their neighboring districts, so the litigation to return them to classrooms is behind Beverly and Gloucester. The state filed a preliminary injunction Tuesday, but a judge had not granted it as of Tuesday night.
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UGE President Rachel Rex told reporters Tuesday that the judge hasn’t ruled on any fines yet, but the union is prepared.
“We recognize that we would be levied fines as we are civilly and respectfully disobeying the court order,” Rex said. “Fines are to deter us from striking and to get us back into school. Fines are not designed to be punitive.”
School canceled Wednesday for three North Shore districts as strike continues (Nov. 12)
More than 10,000 students will remain out of classrooms Wednesday as educator strikes continue in Beverly, Gloucester, and Marblehead.
The three unions are each working with a state-appointed mediator to settle a contract.
In Gloucester, teachers and paraprofessionals won’t be paid while they are on strike, Gloucester School Committee Chair Kathy Clancy told Boston.com. But the pay is just delayed, Clancy said. Union members will see their wages when they make up the days missed at the end of the school year.
Paraprofessional Janelle Jackson, who works with Gloucester elementary school students, said at a press conference that the School Committee is “unwilling to have any meaningful discussion about pulling paraprofessionals out of poverty.”
Jackson makes $24,420 per year, or $746.20 every two weeks, she said. The union is currently asking to see the wages of the lowest paid paras, who make around $22,000, up to $37,000 by 2027 to 2028.
“Today the School Committee tried to scare underpaid paraprofessionals by withholding our pay. This is a choice they made. No striking paraprofessional in the last two decades has been robbed by their employer this way,” Jackson said.
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Clancy said while the School Committee is increasing its salary proposal, the union isn’t budging from theirs. In a press conference Tuesday night, Clancy said the union proposed increasing the highest paid teachers to get $125,000 a year by the end of the four-year contract.
“If we agree to the union’s proposal, Gloucester will have to lay off at least eight teachers per year for three years,” Clancy said. “We can’t in good conscience agree to that.”
Beverly teachers and their supporters attended a City Council meeting Tuesday. Outside Beverly City Hall, two high school teachers acting as union representatives said they began bargaining at 10 a.m. Management got back to them at 4 p.m. with the same proposal from Monday, they said.
“We’ve shown up to bargaining. We’ve been ready,” said Joanna Seeber, a culinary arts teacher. Seeber said the mediator is “even becoming frustrated” that their School Committee is working without urgency.
In a letter to the community dated Monday, Rachael Abell, the chair of the Beverly School Committee, said the union rejected the committee’s three-year proposal because the “BTA indicated that they now wish to negotiate a four-year contract.”
“The School Committee is working with the urgency that our community deserves to end this strike. We are doing our part to get fair contracts finalized,” Abell said. “The BTA needs to do their part now by ending this illegal strike, working with us to reach an agreement and letting our students get back to school.”
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Marblehead Education Association President Jonathan Heller said they were “disappointed” in the decision to cancel school for Wednesday.
“We are still here tonight, we are bargaining in good faith,” the union president said.
The Marblehead union is asking for a wage increase of 5% in year one, and 6% each of the next three years. The School Committee is offering a 10.5-12% increase over four years, the Marblehead Current reported.
The Marblehead School Committee canceled a subcommittee meeting at the last minute on Tuesday morning to focus on bargaining, leaving students and parents confused and frustrated, according to the Current.
“They stood us up like they do to the teachers,” a high school football player told the paper. “We wanted to ask questions and find out what was happening. The School Committee was very unprofessional.”
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