Teachers union threatens 1-day strike

The Boston Teachers Union yesterday threatened a one-day strike as early as Feb. 15 to protest a lack of progress in contract negotiations.

In an e-mail sent to the union's 8,000 members, Union president Richard Stutman said it will hold a meeting on Feb. 14 for teachers and others to consider a strike the following day or an alternate day.

The union has been negotiating with the school system since last January. Teachers have been working without a contract since August. It is illegal in the Commonwealth for public employees to strike.

"We wish to settle this contract. But we have been treated with disrespect," Stutman wrote in the e-mail. "The school committee is apparently willing to foist the contract settlement on the new superintendent, using stall and crawl tactics."

Manuel J. Rivera , superintendent of the Rochester City School District in New York, will take over as Boston's school chief in July

James McIntyre, chief operating officer for the Boston Public Schools, said progress has been made at the bargaining table over the past year. The school system has created a teacher mentoring program .

"Given all the progress, it's unfortunate that the union leadership is contemplating an illegal job action," McIntyre said. "We want to keep the productive discussion happening at the negotiating table and focus on the classroom, and the union leadership seems intent on pushing it into the courtroom."

Stutman did not return calls for comment.

On Dec. 20, the Boston Teachers Union's executive board unanimously approved the motion to bring a strike vote to its general members. The union notified members yesterday to meet the 30-day notice required by the union's bylaws.

If the strike passes, teachers will spend one day picketing their schools and the system's downtown headquarters , said Stephen Crawford, a union spokesman.

During the last round of negotiations three years ago, the union and school system agreed on a contract six days before teachers were to go on strike.

Boston teachers last went on strike in 1993. In 1989, they staged a one-day strike.

Since November, teachers have stopped performing certain voluntary services, including monitoring bus drop-offs and pick-ups . The main sticking points for the union are the School Committee's proposals to increase health insurance costs and to lift the limit on class size, according to previous interviews with Stutman.

McIntyre said the school system is not seeking to increase class sizes . It wants more flexibility in the rare instances when classes have one or two more students than the limit allows. The school system would pay those teachers an extra stipend to teach a larger class .

The union will hold its next meeting on Wednesday.

Tracy Jan can be reached at tjan@globe.com