Thursday, 4:30 PM
Boston teachers strike on hold
By Tracy Jan and Matt Viser, Globe Staff
A Boston teachers strike is off -- at least for now.
The city's teachers took a hand vote this afternoon to delay a potential strike for two weeks to allow negotiators more time after progress was made in contract talks. The teachers had been scheduled to vote today on a day-long strike set for Thursday.
Superintendent Michael G. Contompasis said in a statement issued after the vote that all schools will be in session on Thursday.
"For the sake of Boston's children and families, I am relieved that the union has chosen not to engage in an illegal strike tomorrow," Contompasis said. "The place for these negotiations to take place is at the bargaining table, and that's exactly where we'll be until this is resolved.”
Richard Stutman, the Boston Teachers Union president, said he asked his membership to allow more time to negotiate after the school system took the thorny class-size issue off the table. School officials rescinded a proposal to raise the limit of students in a class by two, Stutman said.
The 8,000-member Boston Teachers Union includes working and retired teachers, nurses, librarians, school psychologists, and teachers' aides.
The union and school officials remain divided on issues of salary, health insurance, and how to improve underperforming schools. School officials have offered a 10 percent raise in base salaries over four years; the union has asked for a nearly 22 percent raise.
Strikes by public employees are illegal in Massachusetts. The Suffolk Superior Court ruled Tuesday that it is illegal for teachers to even vote on whether to strike, upholding an earlier decision by the state Labor Relations Commission.
Thomas F. Birmingham, a former state Senate president and a veteran labor lawyer, was brought in today to help broker a deal. Birmingham, who co-authored the state education reform act, is respected among labor circles and has been tapped by Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino in the past to mediate union negotiations.
Birmingham, who declined to discuss specifics of the talks, said he was brought in after being contacted by Menino, Contompasis, and Stutman.
"I have good relations with both sides, so I'm able to use that to help out both sides," Birmingham said in an interview.
Menino turned to Birmingham in 2004, the last time the teachers threatened to strike, and he helped avert a strike six days before it was scheduled to take place. At the time, Birmingham served as an unpaid intermediary because he said the stakes were high with the Democratic National Convention coming to Boston.
Birmingham also mediated pilot school negotiations with the Boston Teachers Union and the school system last year.
