Everett
Everett teachers strike to make sure salary agreements are honored
Virtually every Everett teacher marched at the high school, covering every entrance and exit. Continuous rain kept no one away; on the contrary, even teachers who were ill and disabled insisted on picketing.
Less than two years after going on strike to enforce their contract, Everett teachers struck again in 1989 at the start of the school year. This strike lasted 11 school days and included the threatened arrest of local leaders, extensive picketing, widespread support from parents, pressure on substitutes not to cross the picket line, and the eventual ouster of the School Committee chair, who was perceived as “anti-teacher,” according to MTA Today.
A key issue was the School Committee’s insistence that any negotiated salary increases be “subject to appropriation.”
Also at issue, according to MTA Today: “When a teacher is absent, and the city cannot find a substitute, the absent teacher’s students are sent to another classroom, often resulting in class sizes of more than 60. The ETA wants an end to this practice, particularly since the city cut $55,000 out of the substitute account.”
In the end, the striking teachers won guaranteed salary increases of 5 percent for each of three years, improved working conditions and “assurances that the School Committee would pay teachers a penalty if their classes were doubled because substitutes could not be found,” according to the Middlesex News.
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