Teacher strikes in Mass. The push to legalize… and the questions over the true cost

Teacher strikes are illegal in Massachusetts, but we’ve seen more and more of them in recent years.

There’s been several teacher strikes in just the last five years, and as they last longer and longer, they’re having a bigger impact on communities and families.

An historic teacher strike on the North Shore left communities divided last fall after three neighboring school districts in Gloucester, Beverly and Marblehead, all closed down at the same time, leaving more than 10,000 students out of school for more than two weeks.

“It was pretty heated it was horrible, it was uncomfortable,” said Shelly Bedrossian, a Marblehead parent. “I think a lot of people are just trying to get back to some level of civility amongst each other.”

While some families were out supporting teachers on strike, many parents were left scrambling to find childcare.

Bedrossian’s daughter is in the sixth grade in Marblehead.

“We own our own business so that allows more flexibility, I could wake up at 3 o’clock in the morning to get my work done before I had to care for her,” said Bedrossian. “She’s receiving outside services that we pay for, we were able to amp those up for those days that she wasn’t in school.”

In Marblehead, students were in school for only 4 days for the month of November, so February break was canceled, and the school year extended to make up those days.

“11 days is a long time as we know and does a tremendous amount of damage,” said Jenn Schaeffner, Marblehead School Committee chair.

The school districts in Marblehead, Gloucester and Beverly are still feeling the impact of this strike.

Along with learning loss and changing the school calendar, there was also a hard cost for legal fees, police details, and PR firms.

Gloucester strike expenses:

Legal= $40,000 (estimate)

Professional fees / communication firm = $117,143

Police Details = $63,240

Salaries for employees not on strike = $55,700

Total = $276,083

Marblehead strike expenses:

Police Details = $11,520.00

Custodial Wages = $2,829.06

Other Wages = $1,554.10

Cost to provide breakfast and lunch to students = $47,952.34

Communication Costs = $22,125.00

Legal Costs = $45,194.25

Total = $131,174.75

Those strike expenses cost Gloucester more than $200,000.

In Marblehead, it was nearly $80,000, not including a few other costs to keep schools open to distribute meals to students.

The bank accounts of the local teachers’ unions were also drained after having to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines for breaking the law.

“It was an illegal strike, that was the issue, and it was a coordinated illegal strike, and that’s where it’s very concerning,” said Schaeffner.

“No educator wants to go on a strike, we have 400 locals and about a dozen have chosen, felt forced to go on strike in the past seven years,” said Max Page, president of the Massachusetts Teachers Association.

Page says the MTA is working on legislation to make teacher strikes legal after six months of contract negotiations.

“The entire system is weighted against the workers, so having this ticking clock of when a strike would be legal would really get both sides to the table to bargain productively,” said Page. “We believe this legislation will help have fewer strikes, we really believe that we should have a system that allows for this basic human and labor right.”

Page says teachers should have the right to strike for better pay and working conditions, which would ultimately give students a better education.

“It’s an unlevel playing field the way it is right now because there is zero punishment for a school district and their lawyers who simply say, you know what, we’re not really going to bargain,” said Page.

“There really was not much movement between what was on the table and what was actually negotiated at the end of the strike, so really the important thing is, was it worth it?” said Schaeffner.

The MTA says strikes can also be avoided if there are other statewide changes to support teachers.

Other bills they’re pushing for include setting a minimum salary of $70,000 for all teachers across the state and a minimum of $55,000 for paraprofessionals.

Plus, there’s a bill to give teachers access to the state’s Paid Family Medical Leave policy, a benefit teachers don’t have right now.

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