CLT UPDATE
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Doing it TO the children; A teachers
union in action
"Bullied" -- or Bullies?
A day after the last seniors graduated and with
summer vacation looming, Quincy teachers walked off the job yesterday
over stalled contract negotiations, shutting down the city's 19 schools
and giving the district's approximately 9,000 students an unexpected day
off.
But yesterday evening the state's Labor Relations Commission ordered the
striking teachers back to work on Monday morning, setting up a potential
confrontation....
The Quincy Education Association voted Thursday to walk off the job for
the day after failing to reach a contract agreement with Quincy's School
Committee.
The deal offered by the School Committee includes a 13 percent pay
increase over four years, but teachers would be asked to double their
contribution to their health plans, from 10 percent to 20 percent over
two years....
"We teach our kids not to be bullied, and we're being bullied," said
Wendy Hanlon, a 52-year-old teacher at Atlantic Middle School. "It's not
acceptable."
Residents' support for the strike appeared to be split. Some who have
union jobs gave a thumbs-up to the strike. Others who own small
businesses or don't have as many benefits as teachers said they don't
have sympathy for the teachers contract situation.
The Boston Globe
Saturday, June 9, 2007
Quincy teachers are ordered back
Walked off job yesterday after bargaining stalled
Striking Quincy teachers said yesterday that they would
disobey a state order to return to work after talks with city and school
officials made little headway in breaking the stalemate over a new contract.
Barring a last-minute deal, the first teachers' strike in Massachusetts in over
a decade will force school officials to cancel a second day of classes at the
district's 19 schools. The strike violates a state law that prohibits teachers
from walking off the job....
"I can't be making the same or less money in 2010 as I do now," said David
Buckley, 38, a middle school music teacher.
Anne Wass, president of the Massachusetts Teachers Association, addressed the
crowd of teachers and praised their resolve.
"The contract you are seeking is just and fair," she said. "You are fighting for
the long-term interests of your students and your community."
The Boston Globe
Monday, June 11, 2007
Quincy talks produce no gains
Teachers vow to disobey state order
Quincy teachers said that, absent an agreement, they would
defy a court injunction and continue their holdout today over a bitter contract
dispute, sending the first teacher strike in Massachusetts in more than a decade
into its third day.
A Norfolk County Superior Court judge issued the injunction yesterday afternoon,
as the two sides headed back to the negotiating table to try to end the strike,
which began Friday....
Teachers, who picketed in downtown Quincy yesterday to protest the stalled
negotiations, said the court ruling would not influence contract negotiations or
convince them to return to the classroom.
"We're pretty committed to this," said Linda Monaco, a sixth-grade reading
teacher.
Teachers voted overwhelmingly last Thursday to walk off the job.
Union president Paul Phillips criticized school and city officials yesterday for
dragging their feet in negotiations, which began 15 months ago.
"It is clear to us that they are more interested right now in punishing the
teachers than they are in getting Quincy's students back to school," Phillips
said in a statement.
At a press conference in his City Hall office, Mayor William Phelan said he
would not accede to the union's demands and urged teachers to return to school
while talks continue.
"The law is clear: This is an illegal action," he said. "You have let down the
children of the Quincy school system." ...
City and school officials propose raising teacher salaries by 13 percent over
four years but want employees to assume 20 percent, rather than the current 10
percent, of their health coverage costs.
The Boston Globe
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Quincy teachers negotiate late into night
“They only work 180 days a year and they get 90 percent of
their health insurance paid,” said Saori Caruso, whose daughter attends
Bernazzani Elementary. “My husband works a lot more and he has to pay nearly all
of his health insurance.” ...
Tensions mounted yesterday as more than 50 chanting teachers crashed the mayor’s
press conference at Quincy City Hall, forcing [Mayor William Phelan] to retreat
with reporters into his office. Phelan scolded the truant teachers for leaving
students in the lurch, asking them to go back to work while talks continue.
“You are negatively affecting the lives of Quincy children,” Phelan said. “The
law is clear. This is an illegal action.” ...
Outside City Hall, parent Roberta Lee said of the teachers, “If they want to do
this, why can’t they do it during the off season so the parents don’t have to
find day care and the kids can finish the year? It’s not right.”
The Boston Herald
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Quincy teachers fail to back down
If anyone should be on strike today in Quincy, it should be
the parents, not the teachers.
It is the taxpaying parents, after all, who are missing work, losing money and
shelling out for emergency childcare while the members of the Quincy Education
Association walk their illegal picket lines outside empty classrooms....
So why are Quincy teachers on strike? Because they’re upset over the prospect of
paying a whopping 20 percent of their own health care coverage. Right now,
they’re paying just 10 percent.
And the teachers are striking because, according to the union, we Moms and Dads
still aren’t paying enough....
You lazy taxpaying bums, you....
As the Manhattan Institute recently reported, the average public school teacher
in the Boston area earned $40.17 per hour -- more than the average psychologist,
architect or nuclear engineer.
The teachers’ unions bristle over these numbers, insisting their members work
far more hours then the time spent “on the clock.” Mom and Dad answer “Who
doesn’t?”
The Boston Herald
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Quincy must be dumbstruck
By Michael Graham
Chip Ford's CLT Commentary
The term extortion leaps into mind. But that
isn't surprising, considering the culprits -- after all, it's always
been all about them. Holding children hostage until their
demands are satisfied has been a time-worn tactic. Satisfied, that
is, until the next time -- for the teachers unions will never be
satiated so long as a cent remains in a single taxpayer's pocket
anywhere within their reach.
The number of times teachers unions have used the
"doing it for the children" mantra to get their way is beyond count
any more. It's become a common joke in cultural vernacular.
This exhibition in Quincy could well be the turning point for teachers
unions everywhere, and should be.
Today in Quincy especially -- and elsewhere generally
-- teachers unions are proving precisely what everything they demand and
have always demanded is and always has been about. In Quincy, the
greedy teachers union is doing it TO the children and few are
missing this display of insatiable self-interest at any cost.
The Quincy Education Association -- the local
teachers union in this debacle -- is impudently violating
established state law: public employees are not allowed to strike,
for any reason. Using the children -- their charges -- as
hostages, by extension using their parents as well, is beginning to
backfire.
In "breaking news" the Patriot Ledger just reported,
"A Norfolk superior court judge says she’ll fine the Quincy Education
Association $150,000 if teachers don’t return to school on Wednesday."
The city of Quincy should take it a step further: have every
teacher on a picket line and not in the classroom arrested and charged,
then fired. Bite the bullet, take no prisoners, fire them all and
find replacements ASAP.
Massachusetts Gov. Calvin Coolidge (later to become
U.S. president)
did it in 1919 in response to an illegal Boston police strike.
U.S. President Ronald Reagan
did likewise in 1981 in response to an illegal strike by the
nation's air traffic controllers union, PATCO. Quincy Mayor Pehlan
should take a lesson, then fire all the strikers.
Then even teachers would learn something new!
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Chip Ford |
The Boston Globe
Saturday, June 9, 2007
Quincy teachers are ordered back
Walked off job yesterday after bargaining stalled
By Claire Cummings
QUINCY -- A day after the last seniors graduated and with summer
vacation looming, Quincy teachers walked off the job yesterday over
stalled contract negotiations, shutting down the city's 19 schools and
giving the district's approximately 9,000 students an unexpected day
off.
But yesterday evening the state's Labor Relations Commission ordered the
striking teachers back to work on Monday morning, setting up a potential
confrontation.
"The commission has found that the [union] is in fact in violation of
the law with their strike action and has asked the union to order the
workers back to work," said commission chairman John Jesensky,
explaining that Massachusetts law prohibits such labor actions.
Paul Phillips, president of the Quincy Education Association, said he
would read the order to striking teachers at a scheduled union meeting
Monday morning.
"We sort of expected it to happen," he said, adding that it was not
clear whether the union would appeal the decision to a judge.
The ruling capped a day of intense emotions in Quincy schools.
District teachers protested outside their schools in the morning before
gathering at a meeting at the Boston Teachers Union Hall in Dorchester.
They then descended on Quincy City Hall, where they lined the streets,
waving at passing cars and holding signs reading, "Support a contract."
The Quincy Education Association voted Thursday to walk off the job for
the day after failing to reach a contract agreement with Quincy's School
Committee.
The deal offered by the School Committee includes a 13 percent pay
increase over four years, but teachers would be asked to double their
contribution to their health plans, from 10 percent to 20 percent over
two years. Quincy teachers, who have gone without a contract for a year,
say the higher insurance costs would leave with little extra money in
paychecks.
"We teach our kids not to be bullied, and we're being bullied," said
Wendy Hanlon, a 52-year-old teacher at Atlantic Middle School. "It's not
acceptable."
Mayor William Phelan, who was the target of much of the teachers'
criticism, argued that under the proposed contract, Quincy would still
cover a larger portion of employee healthcare than most cities in the
state.
But Mark Scanlan, a Quincy High School teacher who spent his 39th
birthday on the picket line, said the contract isn't stable enough to
provide for his two children, with one more on the way.
"If that went through, I'd be losing money over the next four years,"
said Scanlan, who wore a "Koch For Mayor" T-shirt to support Tom Koch, a
Quincy mayoral candidate.
Many teachers said they decided to walk out at the end of the school
year so students would not have to make up as many days if negotiations
took longer than expected. Any days spent on strike must be added to the
school year, which was slated to end next Friday. The district would
have to ask the state for a waiver if the additional days extend school
beyond June 30.
Meanwhile, some students were spotted biking and walking near the
protest, enjoying their day off.
"They should stay on strike," said 15-year-old John Conroy, parked on
his bike.
"No, then we'd have to make up all the days," said his friend, Bobby
Dion, 14.
Residents' support for the strike appeared to be split. Some who have
union jobs gave a thumbs-up to the strike. Others who own small
businesses or don't have as many benefits as teachers said they don't
have sympathy for the teachers contract situation.
Bobby's father, Robert Dion, who is a union worker, said he was unaware
the teachers had gone without a contract for a year. He said it wasn't a
burden for Bobby because it's so close to summer.
"If there was an appropriate time, I think it would be now," the
56-year-old repair technician said.
Raja Mishra of the Globe staff contributed to this report.
The Boston Globe
Monday, June 11, 2007
Quincy talks produce no gains
Teachers vow to disobey state order
By Peter Schworm
Striking Quincy teachers said yesterday that they would disobey a state
order to return to work after talks with city and school officials made
little headway in breaking the stalemate over a new contract.
Barring a last-minute deal, the first teachers' strike in Massachusetts
in over a decade will force school officials to cancel a second day of
classes at the district's 19 schools. The strike violates a state law
that prohibits teachers from walking off the job.
Teachers are scheduled to meet this morning to discuss whether to
continue their holdout or return to class tomorrow.
The teachers union, the 890-member Quincy Education Association, voted
overwhelmingly Thursday to walk out, and teachers did not report for
work Friday.
The strike, the first by teachers in the state since 1995, has stirred
charged emotions on both sides, and among parents of the district's
9,000 students.
Teachers and School Committee members met with a mediator for six hours
yesterday in an attempt to resolve the impasse, which began 18 months
ago and centers on health benefits. But representatives from the two
bargaining teams said the sides remained far apart.
"We went backward," said Elaine Dwyer , vice chairwoman of the School
Committee, referring to talks held on Saturday. "We didn't make any
progress at all."
Hundreds of teachers and their supporters rallied yesterday at Pageant
Field in a show of solidarity against pressure to return to the
classrooms. Many teachers said the contract proposal would make it hard
for them to stay in the profession.
"I can't be making the same or less money in 2010 as I do now," said
David Buckley, 38, a middle school music teacher.
Anne Wass, president of the Massachusetts Teachers Association,
addressed the crowd of teachers and praised their resolve.
"The contract you are seeking is just and fair," she said. "You are
fighting for the long-term interests of your students and your
community."
On Friday, the state's Labor Relations Commission, responding to the
School Committee's request for an investigation, ruled that the strike
was illegal and ordered teachers to return to work immediately.
Linda Monaco, a sixth-grade reading teacher at Sterling Middle School ,
said the strike will probably continue until city representatives make
major concessions.
"We're hopeful there is some movement on the city's part about the
health benefits," she said. "We want to be back in the classroom, but
teachers are dedicated to getting a fair contract."
Teachers have been working without a contract since August 2006 , and
began picketing in protest before and after school about two months ago.
The strike has plunged the end of the school year into uncertainty.
Students' final exams are on hold, and parents are scrambling to
reschedule summer vacations.
The school year was slated to end June 15, but will continue until
students have attended the state-mandated 180 days. The district would
need the state's permission to extend the school year beyond June 30.
Seniors graduated last week.
City leaders want to shift some health insurance costs to teachers, who
say the higher premiums would wipe out proposed wage hikes. The issue
has been the primary sticking point in nearly 30 negotiating sessions in
the past 15 months.
City and school officials propose raising teacher salaries by 13 percent
over four years but want employees to assume 20 percent, rather than 10
percent, of their health coverage. Teachers want the health insurance
increase to be phased in over the next five years so it does not
completely offset their raises.
Dwyer said many communities have negotiated similar shifts in health
insurance costs to address surging premiums. Healthcare costs for city
and school employees have doubled in five years, according to city
officials.
"If we don't shift more to the employees' side, the residents of Quincy
will be forced to pay higher taxes, or there will be major layoffs,"
Dwyer said. "There has to be something done to make up for the huge
increase in healthcare costs."
Fiona Canavan , co-president of the citywide Parent Teacher
Organization, said that about 80 percent of parents continue to support
the teachers.
"Most people feel they aren't paid enough as it is," she said.
Glenn Koocher , executive director of the Massachusetts Association of
School Committees, said that while the strike is highly unusual, the
tug-of-war around health costs is nearly universal in cash-strapped
communities.
"It's a major issue in nearly every school district," he said.
The Boston Globe
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Quincy teachers negotiate late into night
By Peter Schworm
Quincy teachers said that, absent an agreement, they would defy a court
injunction and continue their holdout today over a bitter contract
dispute, sending the first teacher strike in Massachusetts in more than
a decade into its third day.
A Norfolk County Superior Court judge issued the injunction yesterday
afternoon, as the two sides headed back to the negotiating table to try
to end the strike, which began Friday. The talks lasted well into the
evening, and teachers said there was little chance an agreement would be
reached in time for classes to resume today at the district's 19
schools.
The court could fine the teachers union, the 890-member Quincy Teachers
Association, if it defies the injunction, according to John F. Jesensky,
chairman of the state Labor Relations Commission, which sought the
injunction. Teachers' strikes are illegal in Massachusetts. A lawyer for
the Quincy School Committee said the board also sought the injunction so
it could potentially seek damages against the union.
The school year was slated to end this Friday, but will continue until
students have attended the required 180 days.
Teachers, who picketed in downtown Quincy yesterday to protest the
stalled negotiations, said the court ruling would not influence contract
negotiations or convince them to return to the classroom.
"We're pretty committed to this," said Linda Monaco, a sixth-grade
reading teacher.
Teachers voted overwhelmingly last Thursday to walk off the job.
Union president Paul Phillips criticized school and city officials
yesterday for dragging their feet in negotiations, which began 15 months
ago.
"It is clear to us that they are more interested right now in punishing
the teachers than they are in getting Quincy's students back to school,"
Phillips said in a statement.
At a press conference in his City Hall office, Mayor William Phelan said
he would not accede to the union's demands and urged teachers to return
to school while talks continue.
"The law is clear: This is an illegal action," he said. "You have let
down the children of the Quincy school system."
As Phelan spoke, more than 100 teachers chanted outside his office,
"Tell the truth," and "Phelan is a failure." City officials closed the
press conference to the public after teachers filled the conference room
and threatened to drown out the mayor's statement.
City leaders want to shift some health insurance costs to teachers, who
say the higher premiums would wipe out proposed wage hikes. The issue
has been the primary sticking point in nearly 30 negotiating sessions in
the past 15 months.
City and school officials propose raising teacher salaries by 13 percent
over four years but want employees to assume 20 percent, rather than the
current 10 percent, of their health coverage costs.
Phelan said that the School Committee's current contract offer is
generous and that Quincy teachers' demands are unreasonable. They
already earn the highest salaries among districts south of Boston and
have one of the best health plans in the state, he said.
While most parents appear to support the teachers' cause, Fiona Canavan,
copresident of Quincy's Parent Teacher Organization, said that some are
growing impatient with the strike. "The longer this goes on, the more
their support erodes," she said.
With schools closed, parents either took the day off from work or
scrambled to find people to look after their children.
Sandy Golden, who works at a software company, was able to work at home
with her third-grader and kindergartner. Her boss understood, she said.
"A strike's a good excuse," she said. "It's not like car trouble."
Bernard DiBuduo, 64, was tapped to look after his 6-year-old grandson,
Kevin, and the two spent a nice morning walking around Squantum, a
Quincy neighborhood, and eating lunch at Carmine's Cafe. But the strike
was keeping him from a prior commitment, he said.
"Probably Foxwoods," he said.
The Boston Herald
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Quincy teachers fail to back down
By Herald staff
Quincy public school teachers today defied a court order forcing them
back to school and returned to the picket line for the third consecutive
day of their strike — the first in more than a decade in Massachusetts.
“This is splitting the city in two. People have a lot of opinions about
this,” said parent Kelly Tinney, who said she backs the teachers even
though she had to switch shifts at work to care for her 9-year-old
daughter.
Other parents aren’t as forgiving.
“They only work 180 days a year and they get 90 percent of their health
insurance paid,” said Saori Caruso, whose daughter attends Bernazzani
Elementary. “My husband works a lot more and he has to pay nearly all of
his health insurance.”
Blackboards have been bare since Friday, when teachers voted to strike
after working 10 months without a contract. The main conflict is over
health insurance. City officials want teachers to pay 20 percent, up
from the current 10 percent.
A Norfolk County judge yesterday ruled the strike is illegal and ordered
teachers back to work today, but Paul Phillips, president of the Quincy
Education Association, said they won’t go without a deal.
“It takes a lot to get teachers this angry. We’ve tried everything we
can think of to get back into the classroom, but nothing is working,”
Phillips said. Union representatives made “a very pared-down offer” last
night, but didn’t hear back before talks ended at 11:30 p.m. Both sides
are set to meet again at 10 a.m. today.
They could face fines or be charged for damages if they defy the court’s
back-to-class order, but the city won’t arrest the teachers, said Quincy
Mayor William Phelan. “We’ll take any and all legal action necessary to
ensure they do come back to school. We’ll ask the court for relief.”
Tensions mounted yesterday as more than 50 chanting teachers crashed the
mayor’s press conference at Quincy City Hall, forcing Phelan to retreat
with reporters into his office. Phelan scolded the truant teachers for
leaving students in the lurch, asking them to go back to work while
talks continue.
“You are negatively affecting the lives of Quincy children,” Phelan
said. “The law is clear. This is an illegal action.”
Teachers, barred by Quincy cops from entering the mayor’s office,
crowded the hallway outside, chanting, “Phelan is hiding from the
truth.”
Outside City Hall, parent Roberta Lee said of the teachers, “If they
want to do this, why can’t they do it during the off season so the
parents don’t have to find day care and the kids can finish the year?
It’s not right.”
The Boston Herald
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Quincy must be dumbstruck
By Michael Graham
If anyone should be on strike today in Quincy, it should be the parents,
not the teachers.
It is the taxpaying parents, after all, who are missing work, losing
money and shelling out for emergency childcare while the members of the
Quincy Education Association walk their illegal picket lines outside
empty classrooms.
These same taxpayers are already on the hook for their local school
system’s $96 million budget -- $96 million, to serve fewer than 9,000
Quincy students.
You don’t have to be smarter than a fifth grader to notice that’s about
$11,000 per student, right around the Massachusetts average for
per-pupil spending. The average salary for teachers in Quincy is $59,000
a year (in Boston, it’s $70,000!), and has gone up 12 percent in just
the past two years.
So why are Quincy teachers on strike? Because they’re upset over the
prospect of paying a whopping 20 percent of their own health care
coverage. Right now, they’re paying just 10 percent.
And the teachers are striking because, according to the union, we Moms
and Dads still aren’t paying enough.
Mom and Dad -- anyone remember them? In Massachusetts, they have a
median household income of just $55,000. Schools represent only a part
of the tax burden Mom and Dad face every day, not to mention
Massachusetts’ ridiculously high housing and energy costs. How do they
make ends meet?
By working their butts off. While teachers picket, Mom and Dad are
rushing off to their jobs (both work, of course), then getting the kids
to those vital extra-curricular activities, feeding them dinner in the
minivan on the way home, helping them with their homework and herding
them into bed, before Mom and Dad finally turn on the nightly news and
hear: “Teachers strike for more tax dollars!”
You lazy taxpaying bums, you.
And what happens if little Johnny or Janie don’t pass the MCAS? Do the
schools hold themselves responsible?
“It’s all the parents’ fault! They’re just not involved in their
children’s education,” those same teachers will say.
Of course, it’s kind of hard to be involved when you’re working a second
job just to pay your property taxes.
It is a form of secular blasphemy to even suggest that taxpayers are
already paying more than their fair share to the government school
bureaucracy. Educators believe they’re entitled to every penny they can
get, and they’re entitled to do everything they can to get it, including
breaking the law.
“It’s about being fair and it’s about respect,” second-grade teacher
Peter Reilly said in defense of the strike. Quincy Education Association
President Paul Phillips went so far as to claim that striking teachers
are “engaged in civil disobedience.”
Did Dr. King really go to the Birmingham jail over $59k and his HMO
deductible?
The fact is, most of the parents getting shafted by the strikers would
love to have 90 percent of their health care paid by somebody else. Few
of those parents have seen their salaries grow as fast as teachers have
in the past five years. Even fewer get to work an 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., 180
“instructional day” schedule.
As the Manhattan Institute recently reported, the average public school
teacher in the Boston area earned $40.17 per hour -- more than the
average psychologist, architect or nuclear engineer.
The teachers’ unions bristle over these numbers, insisting their members
work far more hours then the time spent “on the clock.” Mom and Dad
answer “Who doesn’t?”
This is a 24/7, 60-hour-a-week economy. Salespeople, small business
owners, white-collar wannabe -- nearly every American without a
government job is working extra hours.
They’re just not on TV complaining about it.
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