Beverly and Marblehead educators’ strikes are poised to maintain on one other day, stretching over two weeks throughout each districts.
The Beverly Academics Affiliation has been on strike since Friday, Nov. 8, and the Marblehead Schooling Affiliation adopted Tuesday, Nov. 12. Gloucester educators additionally went on strike for over two weeks earlier than settling a contract over the weekend.
Marblehead Public Faculties mentioned faculties will stay closed Tuesday, sending an alert at 7:30 p.m. Monday evening, stating they’ll replace households if the state of affairs adjustments. Beverly Public Faculties didn’t ship discover to folks as of 8:30 p.m. Monday.
The contract fights continued to escalate Monday.
“At 10:00 p.m. Sunday night, the Beverly School Committee announced that they were walking away from the bargaining table and, by extension, closing schools for the foreseeable future,” Beverly academics mentioned in an announcement round 2 p.m. “The Beverly Teachers Association (BTA) has forecasted this for 17 days.”
The Beverly Faculty Committee disputed the union’s take, citing “erroneous claims about how far apart we are” and saying the proposals are nonetheless “$3.3 million higher in wages alone than what the City can afford.” The Faculty Committee mentioned the unions calls for remained greater than the settlement in Gloucester, amongst others.
“After 17 long days of mediation, it became very clear to the School Committee that the BTA had no desire to reach an agreement to bring students back to school today,” the Faculty Committee mentioned round 3 p.m. Monday. … ” Because of the BTA’s continued and relentless calls for, the Faculty Committee yesterday knowledgeable the union that we’ll stop mediation whereas educators stay on strike and adjust to the fact-finding course of mandated by the courts.”
The union mentioned they have been “very close to a settlement” because the weekend, however haven’t obtained “one meaningful response” since Friday. The BTA once more cited paraprofessionals wages as a barrier to a brand new contract, together with new threats of docking putting educators’ pay.
“The return to work agreement for the Beverly Teachers Association is still being negotiated along with both contracts, but the School Committee has agreed to language that ensures educators will not experience an interruption in pay,” the BTA mentioned. “This is clearly a tactic designed to threaten and scare educators and force the BTA back to work without a living wage for paraprofessionals.”
The academics added that they won’t adjust to the court-ordered fact-finding course of as a result of it’s too sluggish.
As of 5:30 p.m. Monday, Marblehead academics mentioned they have been actively assembly with the state-appointed truth finder and Faculty Committee members.
“The MEA made clear that no contract is possible without a return-to-work agreement that ends all legal action against individual MEA members for their involvement in the strike and prevents the district from retaliating against any Marblehead educator for participating in the fight for a fair contract,” the union mentioned, citing lawsuits filed towards particular person union leaders.
The Marblehead Faculty Committee mentioned the unions techniques are “now escalating to include harassment and bullying” Monday.
“This morning, representatives of the Subcommittee and of the MEA met with the fact-finder,” mentioned the Marblehead Faculty Committee. “However, the union did not agree to comply with the court-ordered factfinding and instead insisted that the factfinder serve as a mediator. He would be the fifth mediator to attempt to resolve the impasse.”
