Thursday, 4:30 PM
City school officials plan for strike
By Matt Viser, Globe Staff
After 13 months of negotiations, Boston teachers appear ready to hold a one-day strike on Thursday for the first time in 14 years, forcing city and school officials to draw up contingency plans for the system’s roughly 58,000 students.
City and school officials Monday detailed plans for Boston’s community centers and public libraries to accommodate children of working parents by expanding their hours and bringing in additional staff. The city would pay about $400,000 for those accommodations, as well as providing breakfast and lunch to the children, and stationing police in the areas of teacher protests and by places out-of-school students might congregate.
While negotiations are expected to continue through Wednesday night, school and Boston Teachers Union officials say they remain apart on the issues of control over classroom size, contributions to health insurance, and teacher pay. In 1993, a one day strike quickly led to a resolution of the contract.
The school system is offering a 10 percent raise in base salaries spread over four years; the teachers are asking for nearly a 22 percent raise spread over four years, according to school and union officials. The school system estimates its offer will cost about $103 million, and the union’s about $237 million.
The school system wants the right to increase class size by up to two students, while the teachers union wants to maintain its right to veto any additions.
Mother Nature, though, could delay the planned strike: A snowstorm is expected late Tuesday. The union sent out an advisory Monday to its members, saying that if school is canceled Wednesday, the vote on whether to strike would be postponed for two weeks.
Boston schools Superintendent Michael G. Contompasis said the threat of the teachers strike was real, though he believed that none of the disputed issues were big enough to warrant the disruption that a strike would cause for students and parents. The money is not there to meet some union demands, he said.
"The union has to give a little bit on some of the real hard-core issues we’re facing," Contompasis said.
Richard Stutman, union president, said negotiations with management have been in good faith.
"We have spent 161 and three-quarters hours negotiating. We are trying dutifully to reach an agreement with them," Stutman said. "But it’s not working."
Teachers and other public employees are prohibited from striking by state law.
Last month, the state Labor Relations Commission ruled that the union had to stop encouraging its members to strike. The union did not stop, and the commission took the union to Suffolk Superior Court, arguing that it is in violation of the order.
At the urging of Mayor Thomas M. Menino and Contompasis, 37 community centers have agreed to take children, most from 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m., and a dozen branch libraries will open earlier than usual, at 8 a.m. There will be no charge to parents at the community centers or libraries, which will add programming, including tutoring, videos, and story time.
