Burlington teachers will go on strike Wednesday unless their contract battle with the city school board is resolved.
Teachers voted to strike Thursday afternoon. The move escalated the tension in a messy labor dispute and created uncertainty for parents of the city’s 3,700 public school students.
“Moments ago, my fellow members and I voted to authorize a strike beginning on September 13 if the board fails to come back to the table and stay there until we reach an agreement for a contract covering this school year,” said Fran Brock, Burlington Education Association president, in a press release issued late Thursday afternoon.
Brock, a Burlington High School history teacher, lashed out at the board for imposing contract terms last Friday and also accused the board of neglecting student needs.
“We are done standing by while a shrinking percentage of the district’s budgets goes to student instruction. And we are done standing by while this board prefers condescension over collaboration,” Brock said in her statement.
Board chair Mark Porter did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Battle lines have been drawn over raises and health care, as well as direct instruction time.
The board disagrees with the union’s assessment of the situation. Members have said they are trying to increase instruction time to pull underperforming students up to grade level — with resistance from the union.
The board voted 9-1 to impose a contract for the 2017-2018 school year that offered an average $1,702 raise for teachers, representing a percentage increase of about 2.4 percent.
Burlington teachers earned an average of about $69,000 last year. Top pay was $84,750 and entry level pay was just more than $43,565.
Teachers rejected the imposed terms.
Over the course of some 17 contract meetings, the board developed a number of charts that suggested recent teacher raises and local school taxes have outpaced what taxpayers can afford.
This year’s strike vote echoes the discord that soured that start of the school year in 2016, when the board also imposed a contract and teachers took a strike vote. But at the last minute, the two sides were able to hash out a one-year agreement and there was no strike.
It’s unclear how things will play out this year.
Brock said teachers truly want a solution.
“We don’t want to strike; no one ever does,” she said. “What we want is for this school board to recognize our determination for a contract that works to keep the very best teachers so our city’s children can thrive.”
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Teachers pay taxes too. If you don’t like your job’s compensation or benefit package then do something about it–form a union, switch jobs, etc.
Yes, Burlington teachers work six months, seven hours each day, according to their contract. Instead of being grateful for how generously taxpayers have funded their salaries and benefits to greatly exceed the average resident’s full-time salary and benefits, they continually ask for more. It is never enough.
Vermont pays more to educate our students than any other state. At what point do we stand up for taxpayers? Yes, teachers do important and vital work. Is their work more difficult or important than accountants, plumbers, or daycare workers? I think not. Continually declaring that teachers deserve special status and pay for their part-time jobs is specious at best.
Burlington teachers are very well compensated for their important and difficult work, I think it’s time to fight for Vermont’s average taxpayer struggling to raise their children and pay their mortgage. These are the people who need our help, teachers have been doing very well for themselves for a long time now.
“Instead of imploring teachers to quit because they don’t understand your struggles, maybe you should try teaching to see how difficult it is.”
We pay the teachers. You seem to be saying that the teachers’ jobs are more difficult and more important than all of the rest of ours. That’s arrogant and insulting. And obviously untrue.
No one’s saying that teaching is necessarily an easy job. But my job is stressful, too, and I don’t get a guaranteed raise every year. And I don’t get my Cadillac health care paid for. And I don’t get world class retirement benefits (paid for). And I don’t get to hold the children hostage by striking if my demands aren’t met.
You cry that we don’t understand the poor teachers. I say, you apparently don’t understand the words greed and arrogance.
I think the comments are an accurate representation of how the local communities feel about the teachers’ demands. Most of us respect teachers and want the best for students, but teachers, like the “rich” (which may include some teachers now), need to pay their fair share (in this case, towards insurance). At a time when the president and his secretary of education are doing their best to wipe public schools off the map, teachers should be thankful they have the jobs they have.
Understanding? I understand that with 70k and the summer off you should be more than willing to push through the “difficult” school year…
Teachers only work 6 months? Teachers only work 7 hour days? It seems there is a lack of understanding as to what teachers do and how they help communities, at least by the last two posters.
Instead of imploring teachers to quit because they don’t understand your struggles, maybe you should try teaching to see how difficult it is.
Burlington teachers must work 7 hours each day, even if it is for only six months per year let’s give them a break. I bet if we raise their average pay ten percent they’d be very happy. I bet they wouldn’t ask for more next year. Oh sorry, the union tells me they always ask for more. It doesn’t matter how much they make they will always ask for more. Never mind.
As a Burlington taxpayer I support and applaud our school board for taking a brave stance and standing up against the greed and underhanded tactics of the teacher’s union. it is astounding that $70,000 salaries for working part time (six months/year, FIVE months if they take their month of sick days!) is not enough, then they can quit.
These teachers have zero empathy or understanding for the struggles of their community to meet their endless demands, most of us working 12 months/year with few or no sick days, at salaries that are significantly lower. Unions have bankrupted entire cities and huge multinational corporations desperately trying to meet their endless demands. I am pleading with the school board to please hold firm for the sake of taxpayers who cannot breathe under the weight of supporting these incredibly ungrateful teachers.
I really wish the school board could pull a Reagan (air traffic controllers) and fire the whole bunch of them. I bet there are plenty of folks looking for teaching jobs.
Is the Burlington Education Association (Teachers Union) making itself irrelevant? Each contract cycle, they behave exactly the same: Refusal to meet. Refusal to compromise. Attack the integrity of the school board and administration. Attempt to create a crisis by running the clock out. If the BEA wont come to the table ready to negotiate realistically, why should the school board and administration waste so much of their time coddling their bad behavior. Burlington teachers make an average of $70,000 a year, get generous health care, pension and other benefits and summers off. Their complaint is that they couldnt get 1% more?
Pigs get fat, hogs get slaughtered. It is time for the School Board to stand up for the taxpayers in the City. Parents, don’t let a few greedy teachers hold your children hostage. If teachers don’t want to teach, it’s time to replace them.