CLT UPDATE
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Teachers union greed again rejected
Members of the teachers union are accusing
Superintendent Anne L. Towle of bullying teachers and deceiving the
public.
A statement released to the press yesterday says the superintendent and
the School Committee are trying to portray teachers as “greedy people
who have stalled negotiations.” ...
In yesterday’s statement, teachers say they rejected the contract offer
in October because “there is an overwhelming distrust in Dr. Towle … due
to her distortion of the facts with regard to contract negotiations, and
her blatant lack of respect for the teachers in her charge.”
Those words came as a surprise to the superintendent....
School Committee Chairman Rod B. Jané said he also was surprised by the
content and tone of the statement.
“It’s unfortunate how they’ve ratcheted up the emotion around this,” he
said....
The statement details four issues: distrust of the superintendent,
health care costs, the negotiation timeline and compensation....
School Committee members released their own statement last week, calling
teachers’ contract requests unreasonable and too expensive.
The Telegram & Gazette
Saturday, April 19, 2008
Teachers union blasts officials, superintendent
Letter charges bullying as contract talks drag on
Clearly, the town can no longer afford the offer that the
teachers declined in October, and the School Committee will not even contemplate
the most recent proposals made by the new WTA negotiating team, which are even
more costly than last fall's tentative agreement. ... However, the Westborough
School Committee does not support a Proposition 2½ override as it recognizes the
need to keep Westborough's schools affordable to all residents.
Westborough School Committee Statement
Regarding the Teacher Contract Negotiation
Friday, April 18, 2008
[Excerpt - Final Paragraph]
That said, as I move around town seeing signs imploring us to
'''Respect Our Teachers," immediately to my mind pops the question: Isn't that
what we've been doing all these years? More and more and more? So they would
best serve our children toward a good public education so that they can go out
into the world for more education, a job or even the military and do well? ...
Yes, they should be paid well and receive topnotch benefits. They are educated
professionals with a big investment involved in their careers. But each time
we've given them more it was in the belief we were respecting them ... and their
wishes ... and their needs ... and their rights. Now it feels like we've just
'''respected'' their demands and are expected to keep right on doing so. But
it's beginning to feel like greed, folks. Like, get over yourselves....
And now they come out and claim, inaccurately, to be kind, that they are somehow
"underpaid.” In the vernacular, that is a crock!
Underpaid? Tell that to the people who have "respected" them so much for long
years that now they have to sell their homes to get away from the taxes they can
no longer afford....
Suggestion: Don't worry about budget negotiations, town meetings, any of it; let
it all go. Take it all to a town where you'll be "respected" and higher paid if
you can find one. But stop insulting our intelligence and take care of business.
The Westborough News
Friday, April 11, 2008
Letter to the editor
By Barbara Smith
Chip Ford's CLT Commentary
The heroic Westborough School Committee -- 5 unpaid
citizens -- has taken on its local teachers union. It has refused
to passively acquiesce to business-as-usual during union contract
negotiations. It has not only refused the higher pay raise
demanded by teachers union negotiators, but withdrew its October offer
which the town "can no longer afford."
And the school committee is not standing alone.
Citizens and taxpayers all around the Commonwealth are increasingly
becoming fed up
with public employee union demands that come directly out of their
pockets when the unions usually win. While public employees keep
getting fatter with each contract negotiation, the rest of us must
sacrifice, go without and do with less, so our alleged employees can do
well instead of doing good, very well indeed.
Then, after picking out pockets again and again, they
expect -- no, they demand -- respect from the taxpaying public
for what they do! We can perhaps respect what they do -- we just
can't and won't respect what they're selfishly doing to us.
In Westboro it's the same old complaints and tactics
out of the same old union playbook that's been around it seems forever.
After "respect" comes being "bullied" when they don't have their way.
The Westboro teachers union has accused the town school superintendent
of "bullying teachers."
Remember the last nasty teachers contract war that
was splashed across the headlines? Quincy, June 2007. "We
teach our kids not to be bullied, and we're being bullied," Wendy
Hanlon, a 52-year-old teacher at Atlantic Middle School, told a Boston
Globe reporter. "It's not acceptable." ("Quincy
teachers are ordered back - Walked off job yesterday after bargaining
stalled," Jun. 9, 2007)
In the CLT Update of Jun. 12, 2007 ("Doing
it TO the children; A teachers union in action "Bullied" -- or Bullies?"),
I wrote: "The city of Quincy should take it a step further [than
the court fine]: 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."
Barbara Smith, lifelong resident of Westboro, came to
a similar conclusion in her letter to the editor: "Underpaid? Tell
that to the people who have "respected" [teachers] so much for long
years that now they have to sell their homes to get away from the taxes
they can no longer afford. . . . Don't worry about budget negotiations,
town meetings, any of it; let it all go. Take it all to a town where
you'll be "respected" and higher paid if you can find one. But stop
insulting our intelligence . . ."
"They only work 180 days a year and they get 90
percent of their health insurance paid," Saori Caruso told the Boston
Herald (Jun. 12, 2007, "Quincy
teachers fail to back down"). "My husband works a lot more and he
has to pay nearly all of his health insurance."
Margery Eagan, Boston Herald columnist and talk show
co-host with Jim Braude (WTKK FM-96.9) got it on the button in her
column of Jun. 17, 2007 ("Hack-ism
takes toll on us all"):
Here’s why the striking Quincy teachers fell far
short in winning their demands last week.
Because we’ve reached a tipping point.
There’s been an attitudinal sea change.
Public employee unions don't seem to recognize that
their public employers have awakened, taken notice, and are disgusted with
what they see, what's being done to them in the name of "respect,"
or "fairness," or "for the children" which has been a joke punchline for
some time. A growing number of citizens are not taking it any
more -- the simply can't afford to. First Quincy stood up to the teachers union and won; now the Westboro School Committee isn't rolling over to union demands. The
tide is surely turning.
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Chip Ford |
The Telegram & Gazette
Saturday, April 19, 2008
Teachers union blasts officials, superintendent
Letter charges bullying as contract talks drag on
By Priyanka Dayal
WESTBORO— Members of the teachers union are accusing Superintendent Anne
L. Towle of bullying teachers and deceiving the public.
A statement released to the press yesterday says the superintendent and
the School Committee are trying to portray teachers as “greedy people
who have stalled negotiations.”
The Westboro Teachers Association and the School Committee have been
negotiating a new contract for more than a year. Teachers rejected the
School Committee’s three-year contract offer in October and went back to
the bargaining table. Last week the School Committee announced it would
ask state officials to intervene by conducting a fact-finding report, a
move rarely seen in teacher contract disputes.
In yesterday’s statement, teachers say they rejected the contract offer
in October because “there is an overwhelming distrust in Dr. Towle … due
to her distortion of the facts with regard to contract negotiations, and
her blatant lack of respect for the teachers in her charge.”
Those words came as a surprise to the superintendent.
“I have never heard that,” she said. “We have regular meetings with the
labor board, and no one has ever brought any concerns to my attention
about my leadership, or distress (felt) by the teachers … This, to me,
looks like they’re grasping at straws.”
School Committee Chairman Rod B. Jané said he also was surprised by the
content and tone of the statement.
“It’s unfortunate how they’ve ratcheted up the emotion around this,” he
said.
He criticized the union for making personal attacks on the
superintendent, who received an “exceeds expectations” rating from the
School Committee last fall.
Yesterday’s three-page press release is signed “The Westboro Teachers
Association.” The union includes roughly 400 teachers.
Ms. Towle said she spoke to union president Bonnie Ross on the phone
yesterday afternoon, and that Ms. Ross was not aware of the statement.
“That’s a little weird to me,” the superintendent said.
Union member Marsha Pelletier, who e-mailed the statement to the press,
said about six members of the union’s 16-member crisis team wrote the
statement, and the statement was approved by the nine-member negotiating
team. That negotiating team includes the union president, she said.
“We are fully united in our stance,” she said.
Ms. Ross said the statement did not go to the executive board for a
vote. She declined to comment further.
The statement details four issues: distrust of the superintendent,
health care costs, the negotiation timeline and compensation.
Mr. Jané said the statement uses “incendiary language” but contains
startlingly little information, and is misleading because it implies
that teachers don’t receive annual raises, as their existing contract
requires.
School Committee members released their own statement last week, calling
teachers’ contract requests unreasonable and too expensive.
A Statement from the Westborough School Committee
Regarding the Teacher Contract Negotiation
Friday, April 18, 2008
Final Paragraph
Clearly, the town can no longer afford the offer that the teachers
declined in October, and the School Committee will not even contemplate
the most recent proposals made by the new WTA negotiating team, which
are even more costly than last fall's tentative agreement. The
Westborough School Committee deeply appreciates the excellent work of
Westborough's teachers. It has demonstrated this support by creating
favorable work conditions, including low class sizes, that are among the
best in central Massachusetts. It has also demonstrated this support by
its most recent fair and competitive contract proposal. Over the years,
the residents and taxpayers of Westborough have provided generous and
consistent support for the Westborough schools and our teachers.
However, the Westborough School Committee does not support a Proposition
2½ override as it recognizes the need to keep Westborough's schools
affordable to all residents. Therefore, it will continue to seek a fair
and affordable settlement with the WTA.
The Westborough News
Friday, April 11, 2008
Letters
To The Editor;
The Town of Westborough has been "my town" where I made my life, raised
my family, cared for my parents, buried my dead, survived a few crises
and had a career I loved, friends I love more. I cherish it and it has
been very good to me. I appreciate the town and services as well as the
people who provide them. They and our network of volunteers to the
schools, the town, townspeople the government, the environment and the
culture are unmatched.
That said, as I move around town seeing signs imploring us to '''Respect
Our Teachers," immediately to my mind pops the question: Isn't that what
we've been doing all these years? More and more and more? So they would
best serve our children toward a good public education so that they can
go out into the world for more education, a job or even the military and
do well?
Yes, they should be paid well and receive topnotch benefits. They are
educated professionals with a big investment involved in their careers.
But each time we've given them more it was in the belief we were
respecting them ... and their wishes ... and their needs ... and their
rights. Now it feels like we've just '''respected'' their demands and
are expected to keep right on doing so. But it's beginning to feel like
greed, folks. Like, get over yourselves.
You're not being very good role models. And you're certainly not serving
more than yourselves and maybe, just maybe, the small percentage of the
total population that lives here or those who, for some time now, have
wanted their children to have a private education in the public school
setting on the backs of the taxpayers.
You have them convinced that paying you evermore money is going to
secure that for them. Even at the expense of the very programs that make
Westborough a good school system! Lordy, where is the logic? Former
School Superintendent Dr. Stephen Dlott used to love to say to me:
''Barb, why don't you tell us what you really think? Well, I won't
disappoint here:
Frankly, how dare the present body of teachers even hint that we don't
"respect" them! We have respected them so much that we have given them
carte blanche for many years now, along with the income to pay for it.
Yes, its hard work. It takes dedication, love of learning and of
children and some long hours. Or it should. It also gives back to the
teachers a "short year," several vacations and benefits beyond those
available to most working people. At the very least it has long since
righted any injustices of pay, position or private rights visited upon
teachers in earlier times. And now they come out and claim,
inaccurately, to be kind, that they are somehow "underpaid.” In the
vernacular, that is a crock!
Underpaid? Tell that to the people who have "respected" them so much for
long years that now they have to sell their homes to get away from the
taxes they can no longer afford. Oh! That's right: Not to worry, they
should think about the profits they can make on their homes, take the
money and run to some sunny paradise to enjoy themselves.
Never mind that they built the town to the place that's so attractive to
these same teachers and the inflated number of students they teach.
Never mind that most of them worked a lifetime to keep, improve and pay
for their homes so they could live in them when they retired.
''Respect?’’ How about a little respect for them?
Really don't understand how our teachers can claim to be underpaid or
disrespected. Not with a straight face anyway. I've watched, waited and
hoped it would change for the better but all I see is it getting worse.
And thanks to Len Mead's carefully researched and documented figures in
a recent Westborough News, now I know just how outrageous the teachers'
claims are.
Suggestion: Don't worry about budget negotiations, town meetings, any of
it; let it all go. Take it all to a town where you'll be "respected" and
higher paid if you can find one. But stop insulting our intelligence and
take care of business.
Barbara Smith,
25 Grove St.
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