Worcester teachers union votes no confidence in school and city officials

WORCESTER — Members of the Educational Association of Worcester gathered on the steps of City Hall Friday evening to announce that a majority of members had taken a vote of no confidence in the school committee, Superintendent Rachel Monárrez, the City Council and City Manager Eric D. Batista.

The vote came during an emergency meeting Friday in which 97% of attendees took the no-confidence vote. The vote came after the school committee announced it filed a petition to seek mediation from the Massachusetts Department of Labor Relations to help with contract negotiations.

"Today it was disappointing and disheartening to learn that the school committee chose to seek state mediation to settle the contract with Worcester educators," Educational Association of Worcester President Melissa Verdier said. "This stall tactic ... is time-consuming and costly. It prevents the two sides from bargaining directly and face-to-face."

Verdier said the union had no idea the announcement was coming or that a petition had been filed. She said she learned about it from social media.

"It was a punch in the gut," Verdier said. "I made a simple ask, and instead of coming back with an answer, they filed mediation."

Melinda Martin, a paraeducator at Norrback Avenue School and union board member, said it was a "dirty move" by the committee.

"I feel like they're scared of our togetherness," Martin said. "We're finally unified, and they're scared that we're unified."

School officials said the district's latest offer Tuesday included an average teacher salary increase of 18.3% over a four-year period. But Verdier said she believes that number is being "inflated," because "they're counting in the annual raises people get by increasing their steps, and they're looking at longevity and counting that too."

In a press release published Friday, the district said it had offered “significant” wage increases and longevity benefits for teachers in the form of an additional $40.5 million over four years, with wage increases between 15% and 19.4% for all teachers.

The release said the proposal included 15% across-the-board increases, beginning with a 4% retroactive pay raise for the 2022-23 school year. Union members would then receive a 4% raise next year, a 3% the following year and a 4% raise in the final year of the deal.

The union turned down the offer. Verdier said that, during the bargaining session, the union told the school committee it would not counter any offers until someone from the committee asked Batista for increased funding for the school budget.

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Verdier said the city is underfunding the schools by only contributing the bare minimum required.

Further bargaining sessions axed

But, she said, instead of seeking additional city funding, the school committee canceled all further bargaining sessions with the union.

"We strongly reject the declaration of impasse and are ready to bargain," Verdier said. "The decision to cancel all upcoming sessions illustrates the bad-faith approach the district has taken to these negotiations."

Although he doesn't think additional money is available, City Council member Khrystian King filed a motion at the council's meeting Tuesday to request that city administration look into "our finances and determine if there's anything additional that we can do to send over to the school side."

When asked for comment on the vote, school district spokesperson Dan O’Brien referred back to a press release issued Friday morning announcing the committee’s decision to seek mediation.

Batista was not immediately available for comment.

For Kirsten Frazier, a multilingual teacher at Sullivan Middle School who also serves as building representative for the union, the district's announcement Friday morning was disruptive to her day.

As the building representative, she is a main point of communication for other educators and when news of the petition broke, she began getting slammed with texts, calls and emails from people wanting more information while she was in the middle of teaching students.

"There were a lot of people that were very concerned because they were finding about things in a way that was basically unprofessional," Frazier said.

'Feeling horrible'

Alex Rivera, a paraeducator at Burncoat Middle School, who has been a supporter of the Educational Association of Worcester in past years but only became a member a month ago, said he has been "feeling horrible.

"We're not getting any progress," he said. "We're going 10 feet to meet the district, they moved 2 feet."

Rivera said that paraeducators need a raise, not only because of their workload, which he and Frazier said can be comparable to a classroom teacher's at times, but also compensation for being multilingual.

The school district's news release said its proposal would have established "new stipends for paraeducators for high-needs, specialized work during school hours."

But Rivera said that negotiations around the stipends for paraeducators were not moving in a direction he would like.

The union also opposes requiring educators to contribute part of their salary to the city's Other Post Employment Benefits Trust Fund.

In the proposal, the committee requested new employees hired after the contract is ratified to contribute 1% of their earnings to the fund to "address the city’s growing cost of supporting retiree health insurance; the proposal would not impact current union members."

Verdier said that it is a "misguided approach" to fixing the city's "own budget mismanagement." The contribution will also only "exacerbate" staffing issues, she said.

When asked about a potential strike, Verdier said the union was "not taking anything out of our toolbox."

The union is going to appeal the petition, she said, because she is confident that the contract can get finished at the table without a meditator.

"I want to negotiate at the table," Verdier said. "We are not at an impasse."

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Worcester teachers union takes no confidence vote in city officials