Beverly Teachers Strike: 'They Want To Break Our Union'
BEVERLY, MA — Any sense of hope and optimism that the Beverly Teachers Association expressed on Tuesday night that an agreement could soon be reached to reopen the city’s classrooms seemed to disappear hours later on Wednesday after the BTA said the city successfully sought a court order allowing it to walk away from the negotiating table if it chooses.
“This ruling tells us what we have feared all along,” BTA co-President Andrea Sherman said. “That they have no intention of bargaining with us.”
Sherman said the court action wass designed “to break our union.”
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“We went on strike to fix our schools,” she said during a Wednesday afternoon news conference. “When we made this choice we knew we were taking a gigantic risk. We have put or jobs on the line to take a stand for our schools.
“We need to fix them. They are deeply broken.”
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The BTA faces escalating fines for being in contempt of a state law that prohibits public sector unions from going on strike.
While BTA co-President Julia Brotherton called it an “unjust and immoral law,” the law presents a teachers union no right to strike in Massachusetts and provides financial penalties designed to compel the union members to return to school with or without an agreement.
Mayor Michael Cahill said in a community update on Tuesday night that the BTA “short-circuited the lawful mediation process by going on strike without letting even a single mediation session take place.”
He called the BTA’s demands — which he said would amount to $44 in new spending over the four years of the deal — unaffordable and urged the educators to return to the schools while negotiations continue.
“We care about, value, and respect our educators and all Beverly residents, and we must be mindful of our responsibility to provide all essential city services,” Cahill said. “We care most deeply and are most concerned for our children and their families.”
Brotherton said that, because strikes are illegal in the state, teachers cannot return without a new deal and a “return to work agreement” that prohibits retaliation for the fact that they all broke the law by going on strike.
She said the stalemate could keep schools closed through Thanksgiving if an agreement was not reached on Thursday night — given the holiday week next week. Wednesday marked the eighth day of the BTA strike that began on Nov. 8.
“We have no choice but to continue this fight,” Sherman said. “If we give in now, we give in for every student and every educator across the Commonwealth.
(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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