MTA educators in Quincy and Weymouth emerged with strong contracts in recent weeks as major job actions and concerted activities, including the specter of a credible strike, compelled politicians and school committee members to settle with fair terms.
From Wellesley to Amherst, union educators have been organizing standouts, votes of no confidence, and work-to-rule actions as they work under expired contracts or fight off privatization efforts.
In March, both the Quincy Education Association and the Weymouth Educators’ Association settled their contracts after months-long negotiations.
After reaching tentative agreements, both locals said publicly that their members were willing to go on picket lines for the contracts that best served their students, families, educators and community.
"We were prepared to go on strike for the contract that Quincy educators and our students deserve," QEA President Gayle Carvalho told a crowd of more than 300 members from 19 school buildings. "For the first time in nearly 16 years, the members of this union were prepared to make one of the hardest decisions of their professional careers, many for a second time, to walk off the job."
In June 2007, the QEA had gone on strike. "Let me make this very clear: no educator ever wants to be put in this position but when we see day after day, week after week, and year after year that our colleagues are struggling and the 10,000 students we serve are not receiving the individual support and time that they need – we cannot stand idly by," Carvalho said.
In Wellesley, educators have been working for a year without a contract. The local developed a platform dubbed the "Fair Five" aimed at boosting paraeducator wages, making parental leave accessible to all educators, staffing every school with art and physical education teachers and librarians, providing sufficient prep time, and ensuring that just cause extends to all educators facing disciplinary actions.
After the district elected to use mediation to settle the contract, the Wellesley Educators Association overwhelmingly passed a vote of no confidence in the School Committee and Superintendent David Lussier. Following a fruitless session with a mediator, the WEA membership voted to begin work-to-rule actions starting in April.
Meanwhile, the Amherst-Pelham Education Association is in mediation after negotiation talks stalled. APEA educators have proposed reasonable offers on wages and working conditions that are needed to attract and retain teachers and paraprofessionals. They’re calling on elected school committee members to return to the bargaining table to get a fair contract settled with urgency.
In public higher education, bargaining units at UMass Amherst quickly mobilized to fight a privatization scheme that could affect about 100 workers. The administration is attempting to move employees now represented by the Professional Staff Union and University Staff Association out of the public sector, claiming their jobs need to be under the umbrella of the privately run UMass Advancement Foundation.
The affected workers could lose their jobs or see damaging reductions to their pay and benefits. The unions have gained the support of state Senator Jo Comerford and Representative Cindy Domb, who issued a joint statement telling UMass Amherst that they were gravely concerned the university intended to privatize those jobs.
"Educators across the Commonwealth are rising up and saying enough is enough: We need strong contracts with living wages for education support specialists, decent parental leave and the conditions necessary to provide our students with the education they deserve."
— Max Page, Massachusetts Teachers Association president
Central to many of the contracts won in recent months is modern, paid parental leave that reflects an inclusive approach to family care. Among many locals, the issue has become a flashpoint in negotiations. It’s on the table throughout the state, as local leaders are pushing for paid leave – not only for birth parents, but also their partners and for new adoptive parents.
Without it, educators use sick days to cobble together a leave to care for and bond with a newborn or a newly adopted child. New career educators – who may not have deep reserves of accrued sick leave – often make do with less.
The Somerville Educators Union (SEU) in September set off the wave of new contracts – winning 12 weeks of paid leave for birth and nonbirth parents – using eight weeks from the district that can be supplemented with four weeks of leave from members’ sick time.
The new benefit covers 60 workdays, and can be tapped by parents within four months of the birth or adoption of a child. "It did not exist beforehand. It was something we fought for and won," said SEU President Rami Bridge.
Over the past several months, similar parental leave benefits have been successfully bargained in locals including Malden, Watertown, Canton and Dartmouth.
"If there is a contract negotiation going on right now, chances are there is a discussion of parental leave," Bridge said.
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