As two North Shore teachers strikes drag on, the one in Beverly on Monday tied a recent one in Newton as the longest in modern Massachusetts history.
The Beverly strike has stretched on for 11 days, and negotiations have become increasingly contentious as students there and in Marblehead missed another day of school while, in Gloucester, the North Shore third community where teachers were striking, class was back in session after a deal was reached on Friday.
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Amid the impasse, Massachusetts' Employment Relations Board began a fact-finding process in Beverly Monday.
Beverly's union said they would refuse to participate in the process, while school officials refused to bargain.
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"It's very rarely used, it is not effective. What the fact finder will most likely say is that both sides need to return to the bargaining table," said Julia Brotherton, co-president of the Beverly Teachers Association.
The Marblehead Education Association said Monday night that it took part in the process, reducing its wage proposals by $1.48 million over four years. But it said the school committee wasn't reciprocating.
Both districts are docking teacher pay during the strike, which Brotherton called a bullying tactic to "force the BTA back to work without a living wage" for paraprofessionals.
Mayor Mike Cahill said, "Nobody here for a second wants to withhold a bit of anyone's pay but we're stuck."
Marblehead's strike is one day shorter than Beverly's, but no less acrimonious. A crowd of frustrated teachers and parents was seen chasing two school committee members out to their car Sunday night.
"We were surrounded. We were being sort of yelled at and actually somebody spit on me," the committee's chair, Jenn Schaeffner, said.
Beverly teachers held a rally outside City Hall Monday night as both sides remained millions of dollars apart on wages.
Dozens of teachers lined the street outside a City Council meeting where the elected officials debated a proposal to urge the mayor and school committee to work with teachers union.
While it was more symbolic than effective, the measure did not pass by a 4-3 vote. Some councilors concluded that the complexity of the issue meant they couldn't back it.
Beverly School Committee Chair Rachael Abell had issued a statement Monday afternoon calling on the teachers union to return to work on Tuesday so bargaining can resume.
"We need the strike to end," Abell's statement said. "Our students never should have been out of school in the first place and they certainly should not be out of school today. As a result of the BTA’s continued and relentless demands, the School Committee yesterday informed the union that we will cease mediation while educators remain on strike and comply with the fact-finding process mandated by the courts. We hope that the BTA will reverse their decision to flout the law and will end its strike so that we can reopen our schools with a fair deal."
She said if teachers return to school on Tuesday, the district has offered to find substitute teachers for all members of the union's negotiating team so they may prepare to begin meeting with the school committee's negotiators.
Other state officials have weighed in on the strikes as they keep students out of class.
"In Massachusetts, students have a right to public education, yet this strike has kept thousands of young people out of the classroom for over two weeks," Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell wrote in a media statement Monday. "With each passing day, more harm is done to our students, their learning and development, parents, and families. This is especially true for our most vulnerable student population. I think the parties can reach an agreement, but in the meantime, we need the schools to open, so young people can return to the classroom while negotiations continue.”
Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey spoke out over the weekend, calling for an end to the strikes.
Leaders of teachers unions from across Massachusetts are scheduled to gather at the State House at 9 a.m. Tuesday to demand a meeting with Healey to discuss the ongoing strike actions in Beverly and Marblehead.
”Governor Healey campaigned as a strong supporter of public education, organized labor, and working people. Yet, she is now falling short in her commitment to these values, complicit in the ongoing dismantling of both public education and organized labor in Massachusetts," the union heads said in a joint statement.
In Gloucester, there was plenty of relief that the strike was over.
“Oh it’s great, my kids need school," Gloucester parent Sara Ferrara said. "They’ve been suffering, you know, getting bored. They miss all their friends, so we’re really happy that everybody’s back."
“We have a ways to go in terms of how we fund education just in general, but I think it’s a good start and I’m just glad that it’s done and we’re going back,” added Allegra Holland, a Gloucester teacher and parent.
