Teachers gain in talks, put off their strike vote

Boston teachers, who had threatened to strike today, voted yesterday to delay any action for two weeks after the school system offered two key concessions in last-minute negotiations.

Two hours before the teachers were to vote on a one-day strike, the school system rescinded its proposal to lift the cap on class size and give the superintendent, instead of a team of teachers and administrators, the authority to transfer teachers out of underperforming schools.

Also yesterday, the Appeals Court of Massachusetts upheld a lower court's ruling that it is illegal for teachers to vote on a strike and an order that the union call off the vote.

The 8,000-member Boston Teachers Union, which has been negotiating a new contract for 13 months, had scheduled a vote yesterday afternoon on the strike. It would have been the first Boston teachers strike in 14 years.

The union had announced its intentions to strike Jan. 6. Tension escalated, with the school system taking the union to court on the grounds that Massachusetts law prohibits public employees from striking.

The union said its failed court appeal did not influence members' decision to postpone a strike vote.

"Because of the threat of the S-word, the School Department moved this morning on two key issues that they hadn't budged on in 13 months," said Richard Stutman, the union president. "We thought if we got back to the table quickly, we can proceed with the same momentum. Our goal is not to disrupt. Our goal is to settle this contract."

Negotiations will resume this morning. Although the strike was averted, a series of issues still needs to be hammered out, including wages, health insurance benefits, and the improvement of underperforming schools, said Superintendent Michael G. Contompasis.

"For the sake of Boston's children and families, I am relieved that the union has chosen to reconsider this job action," said Contompasis.

The school system, he said, agreed to take the class size issue off the table in exchange for the union's agreement on about six other proposals. He declined to say what those proposals are, but indicated they involve performance evaluations and the reorganization of underperforming schools.

Mayor Thomas M. Menino had prepared the city for the strike by extending hours at libraries and community centers.

"We're happy that they'll be coming to work tomorrow, and we're hopeful that they'll be able to come to an agreement before this situation arises again," said Dot Joyce, the mayor's spokeswoman.

More than 2,000 teachers, librarians, nurses, paraprofessionals, and other union members crowded into the union hall in Dorchester before the vote yesterday.

Stutman told the teachers of the school system's concessions and presented a motion to defer the strike vote. Roughly three-fourths of the members raised their hands in support.

"It would look completely idiotic to strike tomorrow, given our advances," said Steve Liu, an English teacher at the Josiah Quincy Upper School. "It sounds like the threat of a strike really helped to lay the pressure on."

But Darius Green, a math teacher at The Engineering School in Hyde Park, said he was ready to strike.

"There's a lot more things that need to happen, and time's not going to help," Green said.

The school system's latest offer was an 11 percent raise in base salaries over four years; the union has asked for a 21 percent raise during that period, according to Stutman. The school system also proposed increasing workers' contribution to healthcare from 10 percent to 15 percent because of skyrocketing health insurance costs.

Yesterday, Stutman, Contompasis, and Menino brought in Thomas F. Birmingham, former state Senate president and a veteran labor lawyer, to help broker a deal.

Birmingham, tapped by Menino in the past to mediate union negotiations, did help with his presence, Stutman said.

Menino turned to Birmingham in 2004, the last time the teachers threatened to strike, and Birmingham helped avert the strike six days before it was scheduled to take place.

"He's someone who has the confidence of both sides," Stutman said.

Boston teachers last held a strike in 1993, when hundreds marched on City Hall Plaza after going two years without a contract and three years without a raise. The strike lasted one day, and a one-year contract with a 3 percent raise followed within two weeks.