Speaker 1: It's with Dan Ray. I'm WBZ Costs Radio.
Speaker 2: All right, Welcome back everybody.
Speaker 3: There are three school systems north of Boston that will
Speaker 3: be closed tomorrow. There will be no school in Beverly,
Speaker 3: no school in Gloucester, no school in marble Head. There
Speaker 3: are teachers strikes in all of those communities. I believe
Speaker 3: I'm correct when I'm saying that. If I'm not being
Speaker 3: corrected in a moment, I know there's a teacher strike
Speaker 3: in Beverly and as teacher strike in Gloucester. Both of
Speaker 3: those unions will be in court tomorrow morning in front
Speaker 3: of a judge who had told them to end the
Speaker 3: strike because strikes are illegal here in Massachusetts, as they
Speaker 3: should be in my opinion. We are joined now by
Speaker 3: Jennifer Schaffner. Jennifer, I hope I got your last name correct,
Speaker 3: pronounced correctly. She's the chair of the Marblehead School Committee.
Speaker 2: Welcome Jennifer. How are you?
Speaker 4: Thanks to you and I'm good. I'm disappointed.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you're disappointed, and you probably are dealing with a
Speaker 3: situation which is very, very difficult, not only for the
Speaker 3: school committee but for the residents of Marblehead. You were
Speaker 3: in negotiations until just a few minutes ago, as I
Speaker 3: understand that correct, that is correct.
Speaker 4: Yes, we had our second day of mediation today.
Speaker 5: We emerged unsuccessfully to the detriment first and foremost to
Speaker 5: our students of Marblehead. As a result, schools will be
Speaker 5: closed tomorrow and students will go a day without getting
Speaker 5: the education they're due because the Marblehead Education Association is about.
Speaker 4: To go on an illegal strike.
Speaker 2: Now are they technically on strike?
Speaker 3: Because I know that at one point you folks had
Speaker 3: the foresight, meaning the school Committee and the town of
Speaker 3: marble Head, had the foresight to say was going to be.
Speaker 2: A teacher's day? Or how did you care is it
Speaker 2: actually a strike tomorrow?
Speaker 3: Or or do are they able to sort of avoid
Speaker 3: being in court because you folks were generous and said
Speaker 3: it was going to be like a teacher's special day
Speaker 3: or what?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 5: What we yeah, Dan, what we did is so the
Speaker 5: marvel Ed Education Association voted on Friday to go on
Speaker 5: strike effective tomorrow, November twelfth, and as a result, the
Speaker 5: School Committee had an emergency meeting and we voted, based
Speaker 5: on a recommendation by our superintendent, to make tomorrow a
Speaker 5: professional development day slash training day for our teachers. So
Speaker 5: we're planned for plan, planning for them to come into training, hopefully.
Speaker 4: They will, and then we'll see what happens on Wednesday.
Speaker 3: Well, of course, I think the reason, if I'm correct
Speaker 3: and correct here, you folks had enough foresight to not
Speaker 3: put Marblehead parents in the position of having to wake
Speaker 3: up tomorrow morning at six point thirty and find out
Speaker 3: whether their kids at school or not. Basically gave your
Speaker 3: parents the weekend to try to find some alternative activities
Speaker 3: for the students.
Speaker 4: Tomorrow, that's correct, That is correct, Austara will be a
Speaker 4: no school day for students.
Speaker 3: Okay, so now just give me a Everyone knows Marblehead,
Speaker 3: many of us never get up to that neck of
Speaker 3: the woods.
Speaker 2: It's one of the most beautiful communities in America as
Speaker 2: far as I'm concerned, certainly in New England. How many
Speaker 2: students are affected by this? How many students are in
Speaker 2: your school system? Approximately?
Speaker 5: Well, thank you for the kind words about Marvelhead. I'm
Speaker 5: an almost lifelong Marbleheader. Myself grew up here and moved
Speaker 5: back when my children were school age, and would love
Speaker 5: to have you come up under better circumstances and have
Speaker 5: a visit. We have a little over twenty seven hundred
Speaker 5: students in our school district in Marblehead.
Speaker 2: All right, and so you have I was sure, a
Speaker 2: high school and one junior high school and how many
Speaker 2: elementary schools? So you've got a system.
Speaker 4: Correct? Yeah, we are pre K through twelfth grade. We
Speaker 4: have two elementary schools.
Speaker 5: We have an upper elementary school grades four through six.
Speaker 5: We have what we call middle school, which you and
Speaker 5: I think of as a junior high school, and then
Speaker 5: we have a high school which is nine through twelve.
Speaker 5: We have five buildings.
Speaker 2: Okay, so how long has it been since this union
Speaker 2: had a contract? How long have they been working without it?
Speaker 5: So within our marvel Head Education Association, we have five
Speaker 5: separate what we call bargaining units, which are sort of
Speaker 5: categories of employees. Our custodians contract was expired June thirtieth
Speaker 5: of twenty twenty four, and the rest of the units,
Speaker 5: with the biggest one being our teachers unit, expired August
Speaker 5: thirty first, twenty twenty four, so a little over two
Speaker 5: months ago.
Speaker 2: Okay. Now I'm assuming that the custodians are not prohibited
Speaker 2: from striking, that they don't have the legal consequences or
Speaker 2: are they a bargaining unit underneath the teachers' union. I
Speaker 2: just want to make sure I get it.
Speaker 5: No, they are a separate unit, and we're not one
Speaker 5: hundred percent sure, but we're being told that they very
Speaker 5: well not go on strike. They will potentially be coming
Speaker 5: to work. We've heard some next stories about that and
Speaker 5: we'll find that out, I guess on tomorrow Wednesday.
Speaker 3: But the teachers unions are prohibited from going on strike
Speaker 3: here in Massachusetts. Is there a coordination going on between
Speaker 3: the three teachers unions geographically? To me, it's a little
Speaker 3: interesting that you have Faverly, Marveled Head and Gloucester of
Speaker 3: very very centrally located geographically doing the same thing.
Speaker 2: At the same time.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 5: And the one commonality between these unions is they are
Speaker 5: all members of the Massachusetts Teachers Association, which is a
Speaker 5: statewide union organization. So we feel, you know, fairly sure
Speaker 5: that this is being done at the state level. And
Speaker 5: that's really what our concern is. Because we're three very
Speaker 5: different communities, we have different type where different. We're a town,
Speaker 5: the other two are cities. Our finances are different. They're
Speaker 5: one commonality is the organization at the state level. And
Speaker 5: that's frankly, really the story here.
Speaker 3: Okay, Now, let's let's focus in on Marvelhead. Sure, the teachers.
Speaker 3: The demand, as I understand that of the Marvelhead Education
Speaker 3: Association the teachers union, is they want a thirty three
Speaker 3: point nine percent increase for teachers. That is across how
Speaker 3: many years would that be?
Speaker 4: That's across four years, four years.
Speaker 2: So in effect, they're looking for really the equivalent of
Speaker 2: about eight percent per year for four years.
Speaker 4: Correct, okay, correct, four and that is not affordable for
Speaker 4: us in Marblehead.
Speaker 2: Right, you have offered a ten and a half percent
Speaker 2: increase plus a new step in salary scale, resulting in
Speaker 2: a twelve percent increase for two thirds of the teachers
Speaker 2: who are at the top of the pay scale, right.
Speaker 6: Correct.
Speaker 2: The committee offered would increase average salary to ninety six
Speaker 2: thousand dollars. That's the average salary with a maximum salary
Speaker 2: of one hundred and nine thousand dollars.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 5: Actually, my understanding from my numbers today with our finance
Speaker 5: director is the average salary with our opera would be
Speaker 5: closer to just under one hundred thousand. It would be
Speaker 5: ninety nine thousand and change. So it would be a
Speaker 5: little bit higher than that, and then the highest paid
Speaker 5: would be one hundred and nine thousand. And those numbers
Speaker 5: are fairly close because most of our teachers are at
Speaker 5: the highest level largest about two thirds of our teachers
Speaker 5: are at the highest level.
Speaker 2: How many teachers do you have in the union?
Speaker 4: Just about three hundred three.
Speaker 2: Hundred teachers, so the average is about one hundred thousand,
Speaker 2: and top scales one hundred and nine thousand. And also
Speaker 2: the number that the town has to deal with.
Speaker 3: Under the teachers request or their demand, however you want
Speaker 3: to characterize it. I understand that it would cost an
Speaker 3: additional eleven and a half million dollars. Is that on an
Speaker 3: annual basis or over the term.
Speaker 5: Of the contract, So that would what that means is
Speaker 5: because there are increases no matter whose contract we go with,
Speaker 5: they'll be increases every year. So at the based on
Speaker 5: the union's proposal, at the end of the four years,
Speaker 5: which would be twenty twenty eight, we would need an
Speaker 5: additional eleven little over eleven million dollars per year by
Speaker 5: the end of that contract to be meeting the obligation
Speaker 5: of the contract.
Speaker 2: Okay, and what is what is the current amount that.
Speaker 3: Let's say for the last school year twenty three to
Speaker 3: twenty four, what would be the correlating figure to the
Speaker 3: eleven you know you're saying you need an additional eleven
Speaker 3: point five What is the base.
Speaker 2: Upon which that is built?
Speaker 5: So right now, our salaries are about our total salaries
Speaker 5: are about thirty nine million dollars, little under forty million dollars,
Speaker 5: and this year our increases were about a millillion dollars
Speaker 5: more we needed this year compared to last year, which
Speaker 5: is pretty much what our increase in our inteo appropriation
Speaker 5: has been based on pretty slow anemic growth up here.
Speaker 5: So to have to have eleven million or even you know,
Speaker 5: two to three a year over four years, we just
Speaker 5: we just.
Speaker 4: Don't have it. The town doesn't have it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So they're.
Speaker 3: In effect asking for an additional eleven point five nine
Speaker 3: almost eleven point six million, and your offer, which includes
Speaker 3: some other benefits as well, would be four point eight
Speaker 3: nine million dollars almost five million dollars. So all right, again,
Speaker 3: Marblehead is not is not a metropolis like Boston or Worcester.
Speaker 2: It's a it's a town.
Speaker 3: What I'd like to do is I don't want you
Speaker 3: to negotiate this with people on air. I appreciate you
Speaker 3: calling in tonight and you're available for us, because I
Speaker 3: think so often and people don't understand the strictures that
Speaker 3: you know, I suspect that probably as a school committee
Speaker 3: member and you're the chair of the school committee. Folks
Speaker 3: make a nominal salary, if any salary at all.
Speaker 2: Correct.
Speaker 4: We are volunteers. There's no spe end or salery.
Speaker 3: Okay, fair enough, okay, I just wanted to make clarify that.
Speaker 3: And you're trying to run a great school system, but.
Speaker 2: You have to, you know, be within some relative means.
Speaker 2: It would be great if you could pay every teacher
Speaker 2: three hundred thousand dollars a year. I mean, well, you know,
Speaker 2: but yeah, I mean it would be wonderful, but you
Speaker 2: have some limitations, and in order to do this, you'd
Speaker 2: probably have to get a Prop. Two and a half override,
Speaker 2: so you almost would be in a situation where you
Speaker 2: would promise something that you might not be able to deliver.
Speaker 4: That's correct.
Speaker 5: I mean we are limited under Proposition two and a
Speaker 5: half in raising our tax levy each year. And some
Speaker 5: of the points you made earlier about Marblehead, we're very small,
Speaker 5: beautiful Sea coast community. We have a very very small
Speaker 5: commercial base of multiple small business owners. We don't have
Speaker 5: a large industrial complex or big mall or anything, you know,
Speaker 5: paying commercial rates. So this is on the backs of
Speaker 5: the eighty eight hundred households in Marblehead, and any increase
Speaker 5: in revenue would require a Proposition two and a half override,
Speaker 5: which we have not passed a permanent general override since
Speaker 5: two thousand and five. There were two attempts in the
Speaker 5: last three years.
Speaker 4: And both failed, So it's a it's a bit of
Speaker 4: a hill to cline.
Speaker 2: Yeah, my sense is that, and I'll give you an
Speaker 2: opportunity to respond to this business. Somebody who watches.
Speaker 3: These these these teachers strikes from AFAR. I dealt with
Speaker 3: Ruth van Fuller of a Newton last winter. They were
Speaker 3: for like two and a half nearly three weeks, which.
Speaker 7: Was horrific on their stems.
Speaker 3: And again a community that that really is very generous
Speaker 3: with their teachers. It's frustrating from AFAR because I look
Speaker 3: at it and I know that the terminology that the
Speaker 3: union uses this is always for the children, but it's
Speaker 3: really not. It's about increases for the union members. That's
Speaker 3: the bottom line. And they so in effect they're holding
Speaker 3: the children kind of have a hostage because these kids
Speaker 3: they can't go to school without the teachers. And at
Speaker 3: the same time, and some of these communities they encourage
Speaker 3: the students go out and demonstrate with the teachers, which
Speaker 3: is sort of an interesting conflict because if I'm a
Speaker 3: fifteen year old looking to go to college and I
Speaker 3: want to make sure that my grades are not adversely impacted,
Speaker 3: it's kind of a tough position to put a student
Speaker 3: in to either ask or encourage them to come out
Speaker 3: and participate at a rally and all of that. And
Speaker 3: these are things that just as a resident of Massachusetts,
Speaker 3: trouble me. And I don't hear too many of the
Speaker 3: politicians speaking out against these practices by the teachers Union.
Speaker 3: And you know, I don't expect you to echo my comments,
Speaker 3: but I want you to know I look at it
Speaker 3: and it almost feels to me like the students being
Speaker 3: one held hostage in being used as pawn simultaneously.
Speaker 5: If you get my dress, well, I understand what you're saying.
Speaker 5: I am quite well taken. I think also, you know,
Speaker 5: when I speak, particularly for our older students, I mean
Speaker 5: they do.
Speaker 4: They care about their teachers.
Speaker 5: I mean, that's evident, and I've seen that with the students.
Speaker 5: They do care about their teachers. And we care about
Speaker 5: the teachers too, right, you know. So we want to
Speaker 5: be able to find a contract that we can all
Speaker 5: live with, and we're just hoping that they can come
Speaker 5: back to school. And as a matter of fact, we offered,
Speaker 5: both on Saturday and again today an option for them
Speaker 5: to We said, come back, come back to the classroom,
Speaker 5: come back to work.
Speaker 4: We will take the folks on.
Speaker 5: The bargaining team. There's fifteen members of the union on
Speaker 5: the as their bargaining leadership team. We will release them
Speaker 5: from their teaching duties or their work duties, will get
Speaker 5: coverage for them, and come back to the table and
Speaker 5: let's negotiate this all day, all night till we can
Speaker 5: get it done. But have everyone else back in the classroom.
Speaker 5: And they rejected that twice.
Speaker 2: One final point, I just want to make sure that
Speaker 2: this is clear to people selective service in this country.
Speaker 2: The military draft ended in America in nineteen seventy two.
Speaker 2: None of these teachers were drafted by the Marblehead School Committee.
Speaker 2: They all wanted to teach in marble Head. They viewed
Speaker 2: this as a vocation, correct. They understood that.
Speaker 3: They have not been dragooned to teach in marble Head.
Speaker 3: But they want to make sure that everybody makes one
Speaker 3: hundred thousand dollars and that's a number that frankly, I
Speaker 3: guess the town of Marblehead just cannot physically guarantee. So, boy,
Speaker 3: they put you in a tough position. I thank you
Speaker 3: for having well.
Speaker 4: Thank you again.
Speaker 5: And one thing I'll say quickly too, is that, you know,
Speaker 5: one of the things we've talked.
Speaker 4: About is we do want to be competitive, right.
Speaker 5: We want to be competitive with as tough as it
Speaker 5: is in our financial situation, with other communities on the
Speaker 5: North Shore. And what we've also talked about is that
Speaker 5: some of the things that they're looking for, coming off
Speaker 5: of several contracts, particularly the latest one in COVID, which
Speaker 5: was not a big increase this last contract they had,
Speaker 5: we need a couple of contracts to try to try
Speaker 5: to sort of fix this, you know, whether we do
Speaker 5: one contract now and then in twenty twenty eight we
Speaker 5: do another contract and try to do this over, you know,
Speaker 5: a couple of contracts to get them at a level
Speaker 5: that that you know that they want or that they would,
Speaker 5: you know.
Speaker 4: Be comfortable for us.
Speaker 3: From looking from looking at the Department of Education teacher
Speaker 3: salary levels in Massachusetts, which I'm very familiar with, they
Speaker 3: seem to me to be a fairly pretty well compensated
Speaker 3: school staff. By the way, I notice you increase sickly
Speaker 3: by twenty percent. That's your offer, that's your proposal. What
Speaker 3: is the current sick leave of the one hundred and
Speaker 3: eighty day school year?
Speaker 2: How many days can can a teacher be sick without
Speaker 2: without a question?
Speaker 5: So teachers and my brother, the teachers are given fifteen
Speaker 5: sick days a year and those can roll over, right,
Speaker 5: so they can roll over up to one hundred and
Speaker 5: eighty days, so they can accumulate lots of sickly.
Speaker 3: So this is they're at, yeah, and a twenty percent increation.
Speaker 3: You you're offering to get them to eighteen sick days
Speaker 3: per year.
Speaker 4: Well, no, that's absol a little different. That's with our custodians.
Speaker 5: What the what the teachers are asking for is not
Speaker 5: specifically sickly.
Speaker 4: It's paid parental leave, is what they're asking for.
Speaker 5: So they don't they want right now when parents are
Speaker 5: out having had you know, the child and their family,
Speaker 5: the birth reduction. There's multiple things they're entitled to. There's
Speaker 5: a federal family lead which is unpaid, and they can
Speaker 5: use their sickly if they've had a child for for.
Speaker 4: You know, for that.
Speaker 5: What they're asking for is to not have sickly count
Speaker 5: towards it. And what they were asking for was sixty days,
Speaker 5: six weeks. I've paid, sorry, twelve weeks of paid parentally.
Speaker 2: So sixty days, sixty days.
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, and that we just you know, we just
Speaker 5: that was not going to be affordable. So we offered
Speaker 5: ten and then.
Speaker 4: We went up to twelve. So right now we're offering.
Speaker 5: Twelve days paid parental leave. When they have a child
Speaker 5: birth redoption, then they could have their sick leave and
Speaker 5: then they would still be entitled even after that with
Speaker 5: the federal and the state additionally leave up to twelve weeks,
Speaker 5: but on a portion of it unpaid.
Speaker 2: Gotcha, Okay, Jennifer Schefner, thank you so much for your
Speaker 2: time tonight. I really appreciate you. You've done the right thing.
Speaker 2: You've explained your position very well. I hope we hear
Speaker 2: from some from some folks in Marblehead or other communities.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much, appreciate it.
Speaker 4: Thank you.
Speaker 3: We're going to take a break here, robbing and kick
Speaker 3: one over. I'm just going to throw the number out.
Speaker 3: I'd love to get people's reaction. Jennifer is the chair
Speaker 3: of the school committee in Marblehead and presents yourself very well.
Speaker 3: Six one thirty six one seven nine free, one ten thirty.
Speaker 3: I frankly am getting tired of teacher strikes, illegal teacher
Speaker 3: strikes here in Massachusetts.
Speaker 2: You can join me or you can debate me, whichever
Speaker 2: you want. Give us a call.
Speaker 6: Now.
Speaker 1: Back to Dan Ray live from the Window World night
Speaker 1: Side Studios. I'm WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 3: I'm just going to take a quick break here, just
Speaker 3: for about a minute or so, and then we're going
Speaker 3: to get the news at the bottom of the hour,
Speaker 3: and then we'll go to phone calls. They want to
Speaker 3: thank Jennifer Schaefner. She's the chair of the Marblehead School Committee.
Speaker 3: How would you like to be in her position tonight?
Speaker 3: I mean, the bottom line is teachers strikes in Massachusetts
Speaker 3: are illegal. We saw what happened in Newton there, but
Speaker 3: other communities, the teachers Association.
Speaker 2: You might think this doesn't affect you. But what happens
Speaker 2: in Marblehead, what happens in Newton, what happens in Beverly,
Speaker 2: what will happen, what's happening in Gloucester tomorrow is coming
Speaker 2: to a community near you soon. And I like teachers,
Speaker 2: Believe me, I had great teachers, and I'm sure all
Speaker 2: of us did. But the Teachers Union are leading the
Speaker 2: teachers down a path which is not a good path.
Speaker 2: They are going to try to get every last dollar
Speaker 2: out of these communities, and there will be cuts to
Speaker 2: other programs.
Speaker 3: That's not what teaching is all about. People go into
Speaker 3: teaching as a as a vocation almost okay, and there's
Speaker 3: a lot of perks to being a teacher there, and
Speaker 3: the salary levels are pretty good. They're knocking on one
Speaker 3: hundred thousand dollars, they'll be up over one hundred and
Speaker 3: ten thousand dollars. And this is for a job that
Speaker 3: you have two months after in the summer. And the
Speaker 3: more that the Teachers Union push it, the more that
Speaker 3: communities are going to feel it, and they will develop
Speaker 3: some animosities. I have strong feelings on it. I have
Speaker 3: tried to hold my feelings to myself, but in a
Speaker 3: community like Newton last winter when they were out for
Speaker 3: about two and a half to three weeks. Ruth Ann Fuller,
Speaker 3: who's a very progressive Democrat, she was upset about it.
Speaker 3: She handled the situation very well. The scars of these
Speaker 3: sort of strikes which are illegal, which are illegal in
Speaker 3: Massachusetts Police Department, conco and strike firefighters, EMTs and teachers,
Speaker 3: but they go on strike and then they get their
Speaker 3: wrists slapped.
Speaker 2: This is a problem and it needs to be addressed.
Speaker 2: Please feel free join the conversation. Six one seven, two, five,
Speaker 2: four ten thirty six one seven, nine three one ten thirty.
Speaker 2: I'm making my feelings known. If you agree with me,
Speaker 2: I'd like to hear from you. If you don't agree
Speaker 2: with me, I'd love to debate you on it. It's
Speaker 2: as simple as that.
Speaker 3: Okay, we can have a friendly conversation. We can disagree
Speaker 3: about about some of this. But teachers' unions, particularly in Massachusetts,
Speaker 3: are they just killed the MCAST graduation requirement. I guarantee
Speaker 3: you they're going to try to make strikes legal in Massachusetts.
Speaker 3: And at that point Katie barred the door. Six one seven, two, five,
Speaker 3: four ten thirty six one seven nine three one ten
Speaker 3: thirty tonight, it's Marblehead, Gloucester and Beverly next week, next month,
Speaker 3: next year, it could be your community. Back on Nightside
Speaker 3: right after this.
Speaker 1: It's Night Side with Dan Ray on w Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2: Now we are talking about three simultaneous teacher strikes in
Speaker 2: three communities which are right up there on the northeast
Speaker 2: corner of the state, and I have to believe that
Speaker 2: there's some coordination, as we alluded to with the Massachusetts
Speaker 2: Teachers Association. My question to you is if you have kids,
Speaker 2: uh and those kids are in school, and you were
Speaker 2: to find out tomorrow morning that your school was gone,
Speaker 2: your teaches you and you're going on strike, what would
Speaker 2: you do. I lost a lot of.
Speaker 3: Confidence in teachers' unions about I don't know, thirty years
Speaker 3: or so ago. One of my children was in grade
Speaker 3: school and there were two classes that were combined.
Speaker 2: And again this is an experiment. I guess that we
Speaker 2: were anxious to at least consider one of the teachers
Speaker 2: had just had a child and obviously had some home
Speaker 2: care concerns, which is understandable. The other was a due
Speaker 2: to delivery child at some point during the school year,
Speaker 2: and they decided the school department decided that they would
Speaker 2: They would have a concept of team teaching, so both
Speaker 2: the teachers would remain employed, and that one week one
Speaker 2: of the teachers would be there three days and the
Speaker 2: other the next the other teacher would be the two days.
Speaker 2: So the idea was that the one hundred and eighty
Speaker 2: school days would be covered by these two teachers. Each
Speaker 2: of them would probably do somewhere around ninety days, some
Speaker 2: a little fewer, some a little more. Okay, fine, sounded
Speaker 2: like a great idea. At the end of the school year,
Speaker 2: there were thirty days during that school year, one sixth
Speaker 2: of the school year where both of the teachers were absent,
Speaker 2: So for thirty days at that grade level, my son
Speaker 2: and his classmates had substitute teachers. Substitute teachers. At that point,
Speaker 2: I thought to myself, this is not fair. It's not
Speaker 2: fair to the kids. I don't think these strikes are
Speaker 2: feared of the kids at all. And if you don't
Speaker 2: speak up, if you disagree with me, bring it on.
Speaker 2: I'd love to debate you want it. But these are
Speaker 2: jobs that people have aspired to and now they're looking
Speaker 2: at it and saying they get great pensions. I mean
Speaker 2: there's nothing wrong with these jobs. The offer that's being
Speaker 2: made by the town of marble Head is I think
Speaker 2: a pretty generous offer. It's much more than a lot
Speaker 2: of businesses, a lot of professions have received over the
Speaker 2: last few years. Let me go to Bob and drake it. Bob,
Speaker 2: your first tonight on a nightside, Go right ahead again.
Speaker 4: I'm good, Yes, a little bit find it?
Speaker 2: No be a favorite, Bob. I don't know. Are you
Speaker 2: on a headset or you want a speakerphone. I'm having
Speaker 2: a little bit of difficulty hearing you.
Speaker 4: Okay, how about now? Can you hear me now much better?
Speaker 2: What did what did you change? What did what did
Speaker 2: you change?
Speaker 4: Well? I was supposed to myself years and years ago,
Speaker 4: and maybe I.
Speaker 3: Asked you what what did you change? So that I
Speaker 3: can hear you? I want to know the next time
Speaker 3: I hear that. I want to be able to get
Speaker 3: what did you get off a headset?
Speaker 4: What will you want if close to the receiver on
Speaker 4: the phone.
Speaker 3: Oh, that is always critical because you know what, Bob,
Speaker 3: if I go like this with my mouthpiece, if I
Speaker 3: take my mouthpiece and.
Speaker 2: Put it over here, you don't hear me as well?
Speaker 2: Do you want to bring it back to that.
Speaker 3: That's the key, you know, I got I got a
Speaker 3: professional headset on, and you got a phone. So let's
Speaker 3: try to work together because I want to hear everything
Speaker 3: you have to say.
Speaker 2: Go right ahead, Bob, Thanks, thanks for being a good sport.
Speaker 4: Go ahead, good thing.
Speaker 6: Well, I think that I'm back when I was teaching,
Speaker 6: and that goes back almost forty years ago, and I
Speaker 6: was in a pub schools near Massachusetts. The parent union,
Speaker 6: the NCA, they've had a pro choice platform. Now that
Speaker 6: doesn't make sense.
Speaker 4: I mean, you talk about children, children and children, and
Speaker 4: yet the statewide union is thing have an abortion you know.
Speaker 5: I just I find that, Well.
Speaker 3: Abortion is really irrelevant, Bob, to to what we're discussing tonight.
Speaker 2: I mean, is that I think? Is that? Is that
Speaker 2: what you said? I'm still having difficulty hearing you.
Speaker 4: Oh sorry about that, Dan, I'll just send it right now.
Speaker 3: But well, I'm just saying that abortion has nothing to
Speaker 3: do with what we're talking about today. When we're talking
Speaker 3: about parents across well the three communities of Massachusetts who
Speaker 3: are going to have to provide for alternative.
Speaker 2: Care for their kids tomorrow. These would be kids anywhere
Speaker 2: from kindergarten to grade twelve and uh, and it's it's
Speaker 2: you know, they begin the school year, the residents of
Speaker 2: the community pay taxes which which they is assumed that
Speaker 2: their kids are going to receive a good education and
Speaker 2: it's not gonna be interrupted by a strike. It seems
Speaker 2: to me that there should be some sort of a
Speaker 2: law in Massachusetts which would say, not only teachers' unions
Speaker 2: not allowed to strike, that any contract negotiations has to
Speaker 2: be done in the months of July and August.
Speaker 8: Uh and then bravo, it has.
Speaker 2: To be finding arbitration.
Speaker 8: Uh.
Speaker 3: That the statement, and you cannot strike. And if you striking,
Speaker 3: your out of the picket line, we're gonna we're gonna
Speaker 3: bring and we're gonna put you all in jail. I mean,
Speaker 3: I I think it's that's got to the point where
Speaker 3: I think that has to be done.
Speaker 4: In my opinion, I think you're hitting a nail right
Speaker 4: on the head Dan, what you said right now, I
Speaker 4: mean absolutely, I mean, there's there's just a kind of
Speaker 4: mean it's around and it's gotta be more focused. And
Speaker 4: the point you make are great points about you know,
Speaker 4: being there for education the purpose of education, not you know,
Speaker 4: it makes like a labor stand on this, you know.
Speaker 3: So yeah, absolutely, absolutely, well, I appreciate it. And again
Speaker 3: I just I wanted to get you away from the
Speaker 3: other subject because that's not the subject that we're talking
Speaker 3: about tonight. So thanks for coming back and talking about
Speaker 3: the strike and again what I consider to be the
Speaker 3: unfairness not only to the students, but to the taxpayers
Speaker 3: and the parents. I mean, can you can you imagine
Speaker 3: if if you had paid in advance to let us say,
Speaker 3: receive I don't know, a roof put on your house
Speaker 3: because you had a roof leak, and all of a
Speaker 3: sudden the roof has said, oh no, we're going on
Speaker 3: strike because we wanted to to say increase.
Speaker 4: What's the different?
Speaker 3: Thank you, Bob. I appreciate you call, Talk to you soon.
Speaker 3: Thank you, appreciate it very much. Daryl is up in Canada?
Speaker 3: Do they have teacher strikes in Canada?
Speaker 7: Darryl? They actually have congratulations on Referends Day as well,
Speaker 7: by the way, thank you, and uh, but they actually
Speaker 7: have bus drivers strikes. Teach the strikes. And I just
Speaker 7: love that comment you mentioned about July and August. Yeah,
Speaker 7: because your guests mentioned that normal teachers across North America
Speaker 7: get the summer off.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and they should.
Speaker 3: Have their union representatives whenever they're coming up on a negotiation. Uh,
Speaker 3: you know what the contract is expiring, uh, maybe a
Speaker 3: year out say well, we're going to start the negotiation
Speaker 3: and we're gonna we're gonna stop it before school starts.
Speaker 2: And then the following summer.
Speaker 3: If they don't finish it up, then they have to
Speaker 3: wait until the next summer to to uh, to have negotiations.
Speaker 3: They should not be negotiating during the school year. It's
Speaker 3: as simple as that. And they should be that. Teacher
Speaker 3: strikes are illegal, but there has to be some some
Speaker 3: teeth in this as far as I'm concerned.
Speaker 7: Darryl, Well, that's correct. And at the same time, your
Speaker 7: guest prior to the specialist or one of the school board.
Speaker 2: She's of the chair of the school committee.
Speaker 7: Yeah, she had mentioned about king will leave possibly yep,
Speaker 7: and up in Canada, if somebody has a pregnancy, they
Speaker 7: can actually the husband and or the wife can take
Speaker 7: a year off on unemployment.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Well that's wonderful, I mean, and that's that's wonderful,
Speaker 2: but that cost has to.
Speaker 7: Be back to This goes back to what I was mentioning.
Speaker 7: But the cumun will leave.
Speaker 4: Yep.
Speaker 7: If you can accumulate that and you're trying to do
Speaker 7: a budget year to year, then that budget gets thrown
Speaker 7: right out of whack. And if you have a whole
Speaker 7: bunch of people that are actually in that predicament, then
Speaker 7: you leave half. You might lose half your staff.
Speaker 3: Conceivab But yeah, I would call it a I call
Speaker 3: it more of a situation than a predicament. But that's
Speaker 3: that's that's a little euphemistic. So yeah, it's a it's
Speaker 3: going to happen, you know, when you have young people
Speaker 3: who are coming out of college and becoming teachers and
Speaker 3: uh they have children. Okay, you got you're going to
Speaker 3: be considerate, but you also have to have some consideration
Speaker 3: for the young people that they're teaching, and you have
Speaker 3: to have some consideration for the people who are paying
Speaker 3: the bill, who are the taxpayers in that community.
Speaker 7: Well, it's all about the kids, and it's about responsibility.
Speaker 2: Well they will tell you it's all about the kids,
Speaker 2: but it really comes down to I mean, what.
Speaker 3: A teachers make in Canada. Do you do you have
Speaker 3: any idea? Do you have I do not know well
Speaker 3: down here, down here in Massachusetts, most teachers, most teachers
Speaker 3: in any of the larger school systems. I'm making upwards
Speaker 3: or in excess of one hundred.
Speaker 2: Thousand dollars a year.
Speaker 4: And that's US dollars, that is US dollars.
Speaker 3: That is correct, is correct, So I mean it's it's topic. Yeah,
Speaker 3: Thank thanks Darrel. Always great to hear from you. Thank
Speaker 3: you so much.
Speaker 7: And any any more questions about Canada and the teacher
Speaker 7: stuff down the road, let me know.
Speaker 2: I will, I promise you, I will thank you.
Speaker 7: I'll check out the salary for you.
Speaker 3: Okay, thanks, doctor, you soon, good night. I've gotta take
Speaker 3: very quick break here. Coming right back on Night's side.
Speaker 3: I'm more than willing to take this into the next
Speaker 3: hour if you want to. I also want to talk
Speaker 3: about the dilemma that the Democratic Party has now in
Speaker 3: a view of what happened six nights ago, the re
Speaker 3: election of President Trump. We're going to talk about that
Speaker 3: later tonight as well. But I want to talk about
Speaker 3: teacher strikes because frankly, this is where the rubber hits
Speaker 3: the role and there has to be and I'm again,
Speaker 3: if you disagree with me, bring it on I'm more
Speaker 3: than happy to talk.
Speaker 2: We've invited, by the way, they headed the mass Teachers
Speaker 2: Association on his name is Max Page on several occasions,
Speaker 2: and they have they have declined. He's he's he's welcome
Speaker 2: to come in here any night and tell me how
Speaker 2: unfair it is the teachers are being treated in Massachusetts
Speaker 2: or whatever he wants to say. We'll be back on
Speaker 2: night's side. I got a couple of Steves and a
Speaker 2: Michael Hare. Got a little bit of room for you
Speaker 2: six one seven, two five, four thirty or six one
Speaker 2: seven nine three thirty. Boy, I'll say, if there's any
Speaker 2: parents up in Gloucester, Beverly and Marblehead. Uh, you know
Speaker 2: we're not going to rat you out, feel free to
Speaker 2: call in. You are the ones who are kind of
Speaker 2: in the difficult situation tomorrow because what do you do
Speaker 2: to take care of your kids, make sure your kids
Speaker 2: are safe during the day when you have to go
Speaker 2: to work to earn your salary, to pay the real
Speaker 2: estate taxes that support the teachers' salaries. Back on Nightside after.
Speaker 1: This, Now back to Dan Ray Mine from the Window
Speaker 1: World night Side Studios on w b Z the news radio.
Speaker 3: All right, back to the calls, we go, well, we're
Speaker 3: gonna go next to let me get Steven Merrimack, New Hampshire,
Speaker 3: Steve next on Knights.
Speaker 8: I go ahead, Hi, Dan hik arm good.
Speaker 2: Your thoughts on what's going on a little.
Speaker 8: Self is unbelievable. You know the you know, I do
Speaker 8: agree with the binding, arbitration and negotiating during the summer,
Speaker 8: which is the correct way to handle it. That's absolutely
Speaker 8: the there's no other way to do it. But I
Speaker 8: will say that you mentioned Newton. I believe that Andover
Speaker 8: had the same problem, and one of the union officials said,
Speaker 8: quote unquote, we got everything we wanted. You know, that's
Speaker 8: not how negotiations work. A lot of these teachers don't
Speaker 8: live in these communities, which are upscale communities. If they're
Speaker 8: not living there, then they don't care what happens to
Speaker 8: the taxvill Oh. Absolutely to pay your If you if
Speaker 8: you're trying to pay a ten to fifteen to twenty
Speaker 8: thousand dollars tax bill and your taxes go up five
Speaker 8: percent or ten percent or more, you're going to feel it.
Speaker 8: I mean it's not going to be pretty, but absolutely
Speaker 8: it was the way it was explained to me by
Speaker 8: one of the school members of my community was you
Speaker 8: have to balance the kids right to an education with
Speaker 8: the taxpayer's ability to afford it. That's exactly what they
Speaker 8: told me.
Speaker 2: Well, these teachers, now.
Speaker 3: These it is not uncommon. I don't know what it
Speaker 3: is in New Hampshire, assume it is quite different. But
Speaker 3: in Massachusetts it's not uncommon for teachers in in you know,
Speaker 3: some of the nicer communities, to making eighty ninety one hundred,
Speaker 3: one hundred and ten thousand dollars a year for you know,
Speaker 3: for a job that again runs from September to June.
Speaker 3: And I think what they should just say is okay, okay.
Speaker 3: When the contract is coming up the summer one year before,
Speaker 3: there has to be some meetings that can occur between
Speaker 3: the school committee and the teachers' union, and they end
Speaker 3: the day the school starts. We don't expect you're going
Speaker 3: to get the contracts settled that early, but at least
Speaker 3: you have some idea about what everybody wants. Now, the
Speaker 3: following summer, you will be involved in binding arbitration, and
Speaker 3: whatever the arbiterr the mediator decides, that will be it.
Speaker 3: There'll be no strike during the school year. And if
Speaker 3: there's a strike during the school year, you're gonna lose job.
Speaker 3: You're gonna lose your jobs. It's as simple as that define.
Speaker 8: I agree with you completely. One thing I will say
Speaker 8: is on the legality issue, the only thing that happens
Speaker 8: to them is the union gets fined. They're prepared to
Speaker 8: pay that fine. And I think that's what happened six
Speaker 8: months ago. When you know Newton and andover.
Speaker 3: I'm sure that's what happened. I'm sure that's what happened.
Speaker 3: And of course then nobody to teach the teachers do
Speaker 3: is go up a little bit. So, but that's another story, Steve.
Speaker 3: I appreciate what you calling. Thank you much, Thank you
Speaker 3: very much. Let's keep rolling here. I'm going to go
Speaker 3: to Alan, New hamps We got more interest here in
Speaker 3: New Hampshire than in Massachusetts.
Speaker 4: Go ahead, Al, Hey, Dan, always great conversation. I'd like
Speaker 4: to make a quick point. Most state constitutions, right, they
Speaker 4: trade taxpayers, you know, rights for the common good. So
Speaker 4: the taxpayer gives up some rights for the common good
Speaker 4: in this case. In these cases, what I find is
Speaker 4: the public unions violate that common that whole spirit of
Speaker 4: common good. And you know, especially teachers use unions use
Speaker 4: children as leverage. When you think about it, if they
Speaker 4: didn't have children as leverage, then they would have to
Speaker 4: debate and negotiate based on cost. Bass. As you're probably
Speaker 4: well aware, the school populations across the country are droping
Speaker 4: and administrative costs are going up because of many reasons.
Speaker 4: But I know right here in Hampshire, in my town
Speaker 4: is twenty nine thousand dollars per student to educate and
Speaker 4: it's getting to the point where we're cutting our tunnel
Speaker 4: roads and safety of police for school now.
Speaker 2: There's only so much money they have.
Speaker 3: But as they say, I think the problem much more,
Speaker 3: at least down here, is what's going on in h with.
Speaker 2: The teachers unions.
Speaker 3: And the teachers unions have figured it out that they
Speaker 3: basically can extort the school committees and generally get a
Speaker 3: It's going to maybe take them a few days or
Speaker 3: a couple of weeks in the case of Newton or Endover.
Speaker 2: But this stuff has to stop and there has to
Speaker 2: be some politicians willing to take on the teachers unions. Well,
Speaker 2: hopefully a bunch of politicians to take on the teacher's
Speaker 2: unions say hey, look, this just can't happen. You know,
Speaker 2: enough people are leaving Massachusetts now, eventually the entire tax
Speaker 2: base is going to leave Massachusetts. This is an out
Speaker 2: of control and unfear negotiations set of circumstances. You know,
Speaker 2: if you're a professional athlete and you want to get
Speaker 2: millions of dollars because you're you're one of the few
Speaker 2: people who can get a night who can hit a
Speaker 2: ninety five mile an hour fastball four hundred and fifty
Speaker 2: feet to left center field, that's a different story.
Speaker 3: You're a teacher. You're a teacher. You do a great job.
Speaker 3: It's a wonderful profession. You can become a teacher probably
Speaker 3: thirty thirty five, forty years and you'll retire with a
Speaker 3: great pension. You don't get a million dollars a year
Speaker 3: as a teacher, but one hundred thousand dollars that's that's
Speaker 3: a pretty good salary in this day and age, and
Speaker 3: it has been for a while.
Speaker 4: Right, and I think we forget that. This are most
Speaker 4: state constitutions, the taxpayer really has rights that they are
Speaker 4: not using, and they're not using it through their legislature.
Speaker 3: Well, if they don't turn legislators out, that's that's the
Speaker 3: ultimate right.
Speaker 2: They have the right to vote.
Speaker 3: So you know you're getting into a political argument that
Speaker 3: I want to list late in the conversation.
Speaker 2: Don't want to go down the road.
Speaker 3: What happens is you get people who are in in
Speaker 3: office there they don't have challenges and it works to
Speaker 3: the advantage of the teachers' union. So anyway, I'm gonna
Speaker 3: let you run out because I'm flat out of time,
Speaker 3: and I will tell folks, I'm more than willing to
Speaker 3: continue with this into the next hour because I think
Speaker 3: it's a critical topic. And if you're not interested in it,
Speaker 3: that's fine, we'll go on to something else. But I
Speaker 3: want to talk about this six one, seven, two, five,
Speaker 3: four ten thirty six one seven, nine three one ten thirty.
Speaker 3: I'm putting my feelings on the line, and I'm probably
Speaker 3: upsetting maybe teachers, maybe teachers, but I think the time
Speaker 3: has come that someone has to have the backbone to
Speaker 3: stand up. And if it's got to be me, I
Speaker 3: hope you'll join me. If you want to debate it,
Speaker 3: you're welcome as well. You have the numbers. Back on
Speaker 3: Night Side,