MARBLEHEAD — It has been a full week since the Marblehead Education Association (MEA) voted 99 percent in favor of going on strike. Educators across all eight public schools have been rallying outside the schools gaining support from community members.
Throughout the week the MEA and School Committee have been continuously negotiating for numerous hours per day in hopes of coming to an agreement. On Tuesday, the two parties came to tentative agreements on two topics, one being the teacher’s school year calendar and the other being tuition reimbursement, according to a School Committee press release. Despite the progress made on Tuesday, the two parties came to no additional agreements the following day, on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, the Marblehead School Committee and the Department of Labor Relations (DLR) also filed an injunction that a judge at the Essex Superior Court ruled in favor of, ordering the teachers back to their classrooms.
On Wednesday, attorneys for the MEA, the School Committee, and the DLR appeared in court once again to appoint fines to the MEA. The MEA will have to pay $50,000 in fines with an additional $10,000 each day the strike continues. The judge ordered that Gloucester and Beverly unions will be expected to pay the fines as their strikes have been continuing as well.
Beverly and Gloucester have been on strike since last Friday, fighting for similar stances as Marblehead, but focusing primarily on higher wages for their educators. In Beverly, educators mentioned they continue to be far apart from the School Committee.
All three unions were fined $50,000 on Wednesday, $60,000 yesterday, and would be fined $70,000 today should the strike continue. The total amount of fines at the end of the current week could add up to $180,000 for each union.
At the court hearing, the MEA’s attorney mentioned that these amounts are beyond what the MEA can afford, essentially draining their finances. The MEA holds roughly $88,000 on hand with another $2,000 raised through a GoFundMe page according to the DLR’s attorney, Lan Kantany.
Regardless of the high fines being issued, MEA president Jonathan Heller said that the fines will not deter the union from their goals.
On a lighter note, yesterday, the Marblehead interim superintendent, John Robidoux, sent out an email to all Marblehead Public School community members announcing the return of sports and extracurriculars. Despite the return, Robidoux announced they will not be utilizing any teacher or union personnel to support the activities.
This will allow the football team, cross country team, chorus, and other teams and clubs to attend their scheduled games and events this weekend and moving forward. The football team will be without their head coach, Jim Rudloff, and one of their assistant coaches, Mike Gairdi, as they face off against Grafton today.
At 12:30 p.m. yesterday, the MEA organized another rally at Seaside park to highlight the low wages being paid to tutors and paraprofessionals. Multiple educators shared their emotional stories regarding how these low wages affect their everyday lives, and how many of them have to work multiple jobs to get by.
After the rally concluded it was reported that as of 12:15 p.m. the School Committee had still not met with the mediator to announce their agenda, as negotiations had been set to begin at 10:30 a.m.
According to Heller, it seems as though the School Committee is stalling their efforts to come to an agreement by not being ready to meet with the mediator upon the start of negotiations. Heller also mentioned that the School Committee never gave a counter offer to the MEA’s custodian proposals regardless of having set a 5 p.m. time limit Wednesday night.
Yesterday At 7:45 p.m., the MEA held a press conference to address updates on negotiations. Heller brought attention to the pace of the bargaining process being undeniably slow and they believe it is intentional as the School Committee waits for the fines to hit the MEA.
The MEA mentioned the School Committee is unwilling to meet in person, that they have not given any counter proposals, and are refusing to address any issues the MEA has brought up. “They have not given a single piece of paper to us today,” said MEA bargaining chair Hannah Hood.
The MEA and School Committee will continue their negotiations at 10:30 a.m. today at Marblehead High School and will be negotiating through the weekend as well.
