As the Burlington teachers’ strike entered its third day on Monday, two lawmakers revived a proposal they said would provide a long-term fix.
Rep. Kurt Wright (R-Burlington) and Sen. Joe Benning (R-Caledonia) said they will introduce identical bills that would prohibit teachers from striking and prevent school boards from imposing contracts. The proposal would smooth negotiations and “eliminate the nuclear option on both sides,” said Wright, who has long sought to ban teacher strikes.
In 2015, Wright introduced a similar bill that was defeated in the House by one vote. Last year, the bill didn’t move out of committee.
This time around, Wright said, is different. The property tax pressures and health care contract negotiations facing school boards mean that strikes may be more likely.
The legislators announced the plan at a press conference in Burlington and painted the proposal as facilitating reconciliation in a divisive conversation. According to Wright, 37 states, including all the other New England states, have laws banning teacher strikes and contract impositions.
The Vermont-National Education Association came out against the proposal. Wright “brings this up every year and he’ll probably continue to do so,” said VT-NEA spokesperson Darren Allen.
Allen described the Burlington strike as a rare occurrence. The strike is only the 27th in Vermont since 1978, according to NEA documents. “The reality is, over 5,000 contracts have been agreed to” without strikes, Allen said. He called a strike “a last-resort option that is rarely used.”
Benning and Wright emphasized their support for teachers and the work they do in the classroom. “We support teachers’ right to strike,” Wright said. But, he added, “we know that is not the right way to go forward.”
“It’s not an anti-teacher or anti-union bill,” Wright added. “It’s pro-family, pro-teacher in the sense it keeps teachers doing what they want to do, and pro-community.”
The bills would create a task force to examine what to do if an impasse is reached and require that contract negotiations be public unless both parties agree to enter closed-door executive sessions. The bills will be introduced in both chambers when the legislature convenes in January.
Allen pointed out that Wright’s bill proposed no solution if a board and teachers can’t resolve their differences.
House Education Committee chair Dave Sharpe (D-Bristol) said he would advocate to change the existing system but could not support a bill that does not include an alternative process. That was the sticking point in 2015, he recalled.
“There has to be a way to come to a conclusion,” he said.
With a full plate for the committee next session, he said, he could not guarantee the committee would take up the proposal.
Gov. Phil Scott’s office released a written statement about the proposal.
“I’ve supported the right to impose contracts and the right to strike,” Scott’s statement said. “However, the disruption and strain a strike puts on students and parents is clear, and I understand the concerns Sen. Benning and Rep. Wright are working to address. If this proposal is passed by the legislature, I’ll give it fair consideration with the understanding that — however we move forward — we must ensure affordability, fairness and local accountability are central to any process regarding contract disputes.”
The announcement from Wright and Benning came as tension built over the Burlington strike. Two city homes with lawn signs expressing support for teachers had windows broken by vandals who likely used an air gun, police reported on Monday. Burlington superintendent Yaw Obeng released a statement condemning harassment of those protesting.
“Although there is a difference in negotiations, the board and the district value and respect the right of the teachers to strike,” Obeng said. “There is no place for any type of bullying or harassment in our community.”
The two sides will return to the bargaining table on Tuesday with a mediator.
The anger sparked by strikes leaves lasting scars on a community, Wright and Benning said. “There’s still animosity” from the Caledonia North Education Association strike in 1980, Benning said.
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“Only” 27 strikes in 39 years.
This strike is terribly unfair to the great kids of Burlington. The teachers and the administration should be docked pay for each day missed – with the money used to hire substitutes to run the classrooms.
This strike is completely unfair to the children of Burlington. The teachers and the administrators should all be docked pay for each day missed, with the money used to pay for substitutes.
And hard to feel sorry for teachers given their average pay is $67,000 per year, and there average retirement pay is $40,000 per year for rest of their life, their medical is paid for rest of life, they get to set asisde $25,000 pretax each year, and they get 12 weeks paid vacation per year. OVERPAID.
I’m sorry to admit I’m switching allegiances as I support struggling taxpayers and their families over teachers. If republicans are brave enough to stand up against these thuggish tactics of the teacher’s union, then I will be voting republican for our state legislature.
The calculating way the teachers waited until school began to strike is a blazing neon sign the union could care less about students and parents. Burlington teachers lost my support when they put their demands for ever higher salaries and benefits above our kids. Along with their 16 weeks of vacation and 5 weeks of sick time, teachers are demanding fewer work responsibilities to go along with their raises.
When the Burlington school board agreed to the union’s monetary demands, the union added more demands for less work. Because they know this strike has the board and parents over the barrel. Voters are negligent if we allow this situation to continue across Vermont. We need to join the majority of states in passing laws to prevent teachers from striking during the school year and continuing to harm parents and children and our communities.
Support Burlington taxpayers!! Thank you to these republicans for trying to help taxpayers but it’ll be hard for them to get enough votes to pass this no strike law. Teachers have taken advantage of the generosity of taxpayers for too long and it is time for someone to do something to stop them. I don’t blame the teachers for not wanting to do ‘menial’ tasks like hall monitor or lunchroom monitor. If I made upwards of $100,000 a year I’d think I was too special and important to babysit kids during recess or lunch. I mean, I have to work while I supervise other people, but teachers shouldn’t have to sit in a lunchroom or at a playground and work on lesson plans while kids are around making noise and stuff.
All the teachers are thinking about is money and not the children! They had plenty of time to strike before school started and this is unfair to the kids that will have to make up the days. You should hire substitutes and fire those greedy teachers or pass a bill to ban teacher strikes at least during the school year so it doesn’t interfere with classes.
What I see is the school board not doing their job by not negotiating a satisfactory contract with the teachers union that provides the best possible education to our children. Since this new administration started there has been inexcusable wasting of resources starting with paying someone for several months who wasn’t even in town working. Rewriting a working website? Reassigning principals – even in their last year? It was very expensive to the taxpayers that these employees had to use time to relearn pieces of work they had down pat in the schools they already led. Bean bag chairs in the high school library? That took priority over sitting down with the people who will be educating our children and finding out the best way to support them to help our children face the challenges they will encounter in their futures.
Teachers and counselors are fleeing the burlington school district in droves even to lower paying districts. Time after time the board cancels meetings where the public has been invited to express their opinion. What does that tell you? And people in the community writing letters blaming this situation on teacher greed are not seeing the big picture nor, in my opinion, contributing anything useful to the conversation.
The teachers started the school year without contracts. They didn’t just decide to strike out of pure greed.
With 37 other states already having a law in place, let’s hope the too often prevailing Vermont narrative that “We’re not like other places” takes a back seat to seriously studying the successes or lack thereof of those 37 states, and to craft a great piece of legislation that ends NEA’s manipulative machinations by the end of the next legislative session.
Hooray! That’s the way it once was. Schools were not allowed to strike nor were hospital workers, so I hope they add hospital workers to this effort. Schools, of course, always strike when school is in session, causing serious difficulties for parents. They claim they ‘do it for the kids’. Right. They love kids. Wrong. They love money. They love benefits. They love their summers off. And they love their cushy jobs. And they don’t care that we pay through the teeth, discouraging us from complaining as they take it out on our kids if they find we are not tap dancing to their tune. The MYTH of the underpaid, overworked teacher is dead.