Beverly Teachers Strike: 'We Know Our Community Is Hurting'
BEVERLY, MA — Beverly Public Schools are closed for a third straight school day on Wednesday as any growing optimism around reaching an agreement on a new teacher contract appeared to fade.
Beverly Teachers Association bargaining team members Joanna Seeber and Stephanie Andrews blasted the School Committee and Mayor Michael Cahill for what they called a "lack of urgency" during a day of negotiations in which they said they were presented the same previously rejected proposals.
"The sticking points are what we talked about —paraprofessional wages, and paid parental leave, and safe schools for our students," Andrews said during a news conference on the City Hall steps early Tuesday night. "And the sticking point is management and their lack of urgency and their lack of creative solutions to get these schools open."
BTA members voted on Thursday on a strike that began Friday after two months of working without a contract. Public union sector strikes are illegal in Massachusetts with the BTA facing potential escalating fines and other penalties the longer it continues.
"The School Committee is working with the urgency that our community deserves to end this strike," School Committee Chair Rachael Abell said in a statement to the community. "We are doing our part to get fair contracts finalized. The BTA needs to do their part now by ending this illegal strike, working with us to reach an agreement and letting our students get back to school."
Abell said on Monday the sides remained about $14.4 million apart on contract proposals.
Seeber said the BTA thought they had "signs of progress" on Monday and came into Tuesday's negotiations "hopeful" but that the bargaining team waited for hours only to be offered what she said was essentially the same offer as the union previously indicated was unacceptable. She claimed that the state-mandated mediator also expressed frustration with the lack of prompt responses from the School Committee and mayor.
"None of us want this," Seeber said. "None of us have wanted any of this. We've shown up to bargain. We've been ready to bargain. It is deeply disturbing that management has continued to come back not offering us anything that is workable or anything new from the previous day."
Several BTA members were in the audience at Tuesday night's City Council meeting as a show of solidarity.
"We do not want to be out on the cold steps of City Hall," Andrews said. "We want to be in the classroom with the students we love.
"We know our community is hurting right now. And we're hurting as well. We have families. We have children. And we understand this is difficult — especially for the students. We want our schools open. We want to be with our students.
"We stand with our community. And they stand with us."
(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at X/Twitter:
