Beverly and Marblehead educators’ strikes are poised to keep on another day, stretching over two weeks across both districts.
The Beverly Teachers Association has been on strike since Friday, Nov. 8, and the Marblehead Education Association followed Tuesday, Nov. 12. Gloucester educators also went on strike for over two weeks before settling a contract over the weekend.
Marblehead Public Schools said schools will remain closed Tuesday, sending an alert at 7:30 p.m. Monday night, stating they will update families if the situation changes. Beverly Public Schools did not send notice to parents 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 teachers said in a statement around 2 p.m. “The Beverly Teachers Association (BTA) has forecasted this for 17 days.”
The Beverly School Committee disputed the union’s take, citing “erroneous claims about how far apart we are” and saying the proposals are still “$3.3 million higher in wages alone than what the City can afford.” The School Committee said the unions demands remained higher than the agreement in Gloucester, among 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 School Committee said around 3 p.m. Monday. … ” 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.”
The union said they were “very close to a settlement” since the weekend, but have not received “one meaningful response” since Friday. The BTA again cited paraprofessionals wages as a barrier to a new contract, along with new threats of docking striking 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 said. “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 teachers added that they will not comply with the court-ordered fact-finding process because it is too slow.
As of 5:30 p.m. Monday, Marblehead teachers said they were actively meeting with the state-appointed fact finder and School 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 said, citing lawsuits filed against individual union leaders.
The Marblehead School Committee said the unions tactics are “now escalating to include harassment and bullying” Monday.
“This morning, representatives of the Subcommittee and of the MEA met with the fact-finder,” said the Marblehead School 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.”