Several hundred Burlington teachers raised the volume of their labor dispute with the city school board Tuesday afternoon by staging a rush-hour picket complete with bongo drummers on U.S. 2 near the entrance to Interstate 89.
As drivers honked noisily in support, teachers on both sides of the busy road waved signs reading “Return to the Table.” They chanted: “Hey ho, hey ho, imposition has got to go,” referring to the employment policy the city school board imposed on them recently.
Burlington Education Association president Fran Brock thanked teachers for rallying together and chastised the imposition of employment terms.
“Basically it’s an evil sort of thing to do,” she told the crowd of teachers as they wrapped up the picket shortly after 5 p.m. “They are trying to bust the union and we’re not going to let them do it!” Teachers cheered.
The two sides have been negotiating for months without success. School board leaders have said their offer of a 2.75 percent raise is all that city taxpayers can afford.
Teachers have at least three more pickets planned, including early Wednesday at city schools before classes start.
Asked if teachers will strike, Brock, a Burlington High School history teacher, said they would not rush into anything, but indicated it’s under discussion. “We have to look at all of our options,” she said.
But, Brock added, her hope is that the board will return to the table.
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I strongly support the school board and thank them for taking a stand against these endless union demands for more as taxpayers scrimp and suffer to keep up. Calling the school board evil is meant to guilt them into releasing the cash spigot. Your $73,000 salary is ‘only’ being increased to $75,000 and you call that evil? I despise the greed of these people and their callous disregard for the pain they cause to Burlington’s taxpayers.
Many taxpayers have had enough and we will continue to vote for and support school board members with the courage and compassion to stand firm in supporting the interests of teachers, parents, and last but not least, the struggling taxpayers of Burlington.
Please do some research, Penelope. Teachers are not, on average, making $73K. There are many reasons taxpayers are suffering in Burlington. Scapegoating teachers for this is disgusting, sad, and just plain ignorant.
Busting the teacher’s union doesn’t sound wrong to me, as a lifelong liberal and union supporter I have been driven to despise the teacher’s union. I don’t live in Burlington but I do live in Chittenden county and it seems to me Burlington has been very generous to the teachers over the years. The union will never stop asking for more, never say thank you, that’s very generous and now we’ll relax for a few years and enjoy our extraordinary salaries and benefits. It would be a lot easier for the school board to knuckle under to union demands and ignore the financial pain they cause to the community. These school board members are heroes! You could offer to pay teachers $200,000 with 24 weeks of vacation and retiring on half their salaries and next year the union would be saying that’s not enough. Many Chittenden county school boards could take a lesson from Burlington’s school board!
That’s what Burlington needs. Fewer good paying jobs and taller buildings.