Beverly Teachers Strike: MA Labor Board Sides Against Striking Union
BEVERLY, MA — A state Employee Relations Board ruling that could have a chilling effect on any teachers’ union contemplating walking off the job in violation of a Massachusetts law prohibiting public union strikes said on Wednesday that the Beverly School Committee had no obligation to engage the Beverly Teachers Association in contract talks while classrooms remain closed.
The ruling, coming hours after BTA leaders expressed optimism that renewed dialogue could lead to progress toward a new contract agreement to end the two-week strike, essentially seeks to reaffirm that teachers’ unions have no ability to strike under any circumstances and, according to a statement from Mayor Michael Cahill on Wednesday night, “condemns the BTA’s unlawful strike, stating that the Union ‘fails to acknowledge its own clear and unmistakable violation of the law which expressly prohibits the Union from engaging in a strike, and withholding services to thousands of students, as a bargaining tool.'”
On Wednesday, union leaders said the ruling affirms “what we have feared all along” and indicates a desire among Mayor Cahill and the School Committee to “break the union.”
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“We have no choice but to continue this fight,” Beverly co-President Andrea Sherman said. “If we
give in now, we give in for every student and every educator across the Commonwealth.”
The ruling appeared to take aim at the increase in “illegal” teacher strikes across the state, and especially what the districts have argued is an effort among Beverly, Marblehead and Gloucester unions through the Massachusetts Teachers Association to increase their bargaining power through coordinated strikes.
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Mayor Cahill’s update said the ruling found that “the Union’s public actions in announcing its strike and engaging in a strike, with the message that the School Committee was not acting ‘fair’ or in ‘good faith’ were clearly designed to garner the public attention to coerce the School Committee into capitulating to its demands.
“The order overturns prior (Department of Labor Relations) cases because, according to CERB, the BTA’s strike, along with a wave of other illegal strikes in other communities, ‘signals to us that illegal strikes have been improperly and regularly used as a bargaining tool.'”
BTA co-President Julia Brotherton called the prohibition of teacher strikes an “unjust and immoral law” on Wednesday.
“We went on strike to fix our schools,” Sherman said during a Wednesday afternoon news conference. “When we made this choice we knew we were taking a gigantic risk. We have put our jobs on the line to take a stand for our schools.
“We need to fix them. They are deeply broken.”
Mayor Cahill said the city will continue with the mediation process with the BTA on Thursday even though it has no obligation to do so “to continue our efforts to get these contracts settled, because our children need to be back in school.”
(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at [email protected]. X/Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)
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