Watertown
Watertown teachers strike over wages and equity
The WTA wanted to improve the evaluation process and make the present instrument work, but the committee wanted to be Big Brother.
Watertown teachers walked off the job on April 23 to protest that their salaries “were falling further and further behind those of surrounding communities,” according to MTA Today. A high school physics teacher calculated that teacher pay was 19 percent less than it had been 15 years earlier, when adjusted for inflation.
Also at issue were the Watertown Teachers Association’s opposition to three proposals that the local thought were “illegal,” one concerning due process rights in termination proceedings, another taking away certain rights to challenge School Committee decisions about sabbaticals, and the third, described by the WTA as “age discrimination.” That plan would have reduced and ultimately eliminated longevity payments as a way to pressure longtime teachers to retire earlier than planned.
When the five-day strike was settled, the teachers had won effective raises of more than 23 percent over three years, along with other financial benefits.
