Brookline
Diversity and pay are key issues in 2022 Brookline strike
When they created ‘poison pills’ in their contract proposals and threatened to impose conditions we could never accept, that’s when people got radicalized.
Just two years after a one-day work stoppage over pandemic safety issues, Brookline Educators Union members voted to go on strike again, this time over pay, staff diversity and additional preparation time.
The strike took place on May 16 following a weekend of round-the-clock bargaining sessions. According to MTA Today, “Before getting to that point, the BEU conducted a rapid assessment of its membership, with members holding hundreds of one-on-one conversations.”
The strike authorization vote was nearly unanimous. The BEU reported that nearly all of its members walked the picket lines.
“The School Committee became our best organizer,” BEU President Jessica Wender-Shubow told MTA Today. “When they created ‘poison pills’ in their contract proposals and threatened to impose conditions we could never accept, that’s when people got radicalized.”
The contract settlement included salary increases, longevity pay, additional preparation time and the creation of a working group on workforce diversity and underrepresented staff. The focus on staff diversity was just one of several instances in the 2020s in which a local has focused on what it called “common-good” concerns beyond the bounds of traditional bargaining.
