Speaker 1: It's night Side with Dan Ray. I'm WBS Constance.
Speaker 2: Well, if you are a student in the Marblehead, Gloucester
Speaker 2: or Beverly school system, no school tomorrow, now, I'm sure
Speaker 2: a lot of the kids are cheering. Hey, no school
Speaker 2: tomorrow and the other day off. Okay, well maybe not
Speaker 2: all kids, but some. But I'll tell you who's probably
Speaker 2: not cheering, and that's the parents of the kids in
Speaker 2: those schools. Because when you think of this sort of
Speaker 2: social contract that exists between taxpayers and the communities in
Speaker 2: which they live. One portion of that social contract is
Speaker 2: the taxpayers pay taxes, primarily real estate taxes in most
Speaker 2: Massachusetts communities, to support the essential services, which include fire,
Speaker 2: police EMTs. Your house catches fire, there's a robber coming
Speaker 2: in your house, someone is choking, or someone is having
Speaker 2: a metal emergency, you want to think that there'll be
Speaker 2: a fire truck that pulls up, a police car or
Speaker 2: some sort of an ambulance. One of the other parts
Speaker 2: of the social contract is if you have children, or
Speaker 2: if you live in the community, you support the school system,
Speaker 2: and school systems in public school systems in Massachusetts are
Speaker 2: quite expensive compared to many other states around the country.
Speaker 2: But we pride ourselves on the quality of the public
Speaker 2: school systems. We have very active teachers unions here in Massachusetts,
Speaker 2: including the MTA, which are embarked on a very successful
Speaker 2: ballot initiative this past fall in which they knocked out
Speaker 2: the MCST tests, the Comprehensive Assessment Survey, and I suspect
Speaker 2: that we will see the teachers' union becoming more and
Speaker 2: more active. Right now, there are three communities that tonight
Speaker 2: are trying to figure out what will their kids do
Speaker 2: tomorrow in Marblehead, Gloucester, in Beverly because school is out,
Speaker 2: because the teachers' union is on strike. Now, I'm not
Speaker 2: particularly interested in trying to negotiate on behalf of the
Speaker 2: school committees or on behalf of the teachers union. The
Speaker 2: teachers union always wants more money. That's understandable. That's understandable. However, However,
Speaker 2: most people view benefits of being a teacher compensating, maybe
Speaker 2: for not making a million dollars a year. Teachers do
Speaker 2: not make a million dollars a year. They are highly compensated.
Speaker 2: In most or in many Massachusetts communities. They make six figures.
Speaker 2: They work from September to June. They have I would
Speaker 2: say a fairly ample number of vacation days holidays during
Speaker 2: the year. They work about one hundred and eighty school days.
Speaker 2: They have in many respects on the ability to carry
Speaker 2: over their sick days. They can once called bank days.
Speaker 2: They have all sorts of parental leave when they have
Speaker 2: a welcome a child. There are a lot of companies
Speaker 2: that do not provide parental lead, certainly not paid parental leave.
Speaker 2: And the teacher unions now are flexing their muscles in Massachusetts,
Speaker 2: and we will see more more teacher strikes in Massachusetts
Speaker 2: in the days, in the weeks, and the months and
Speaker 2: the years ahead. Last winter, there was a nearly three
Speaker 2: week teacher strike in the city of Newton, and at
Speaker 2: that time Mayor Ruth Ann Fuller was beside herself because
Speaker 2: teachers in Newton are very well compensated, and of course
Speaker 2: eventually the strike was settled. The bottom line is the
Speaker 2: teachers' union and the teachers are paid through the city
Speaker 2: by the taxpayers, simple as that. So when there's a
Speaker 2: teacher strike, besides the inconvenience that inflict on the family
Speaker 2: and on the students, it also means that at the
Speaker 2: end of the day, the cost will be incurred by
Speaker 2: the residents of that particular community. Oh, there's some other
Speaker 2: revenue streams that come in, but the bulk of the money,
Speaker 2: the salaries that teachers receive, come from the taxpayers in
Speaker 2: their respective communities. Now, if you've noticed, and maybe you
Speaker 2: haven't if you haven't been paying attention, but most often
Speaker 2: teachers strikes occur at two points during the school year.
Speaker 2: They either occur when the school year commences in September,
Speaker 2: or they now occur during the school year. So the
Speaker 2: teachers striking Newton and end Over, and I think there
Speaker 2: was wubrin if I'm not mistaken, they occurred during the
Speaker 2: school year, and you have now three communities up on
Speaker 2: the north Shore, Beverly, Gloucester and marble Head. I don't
Speaker 2: want to say that those three strikes are coordinated, but
Speaker 2: it wouldn't surprise me if they were, because of the
Speaker 2: geographic proximity of those three communities. So I made a
Speaker 2: simple proposal last night, and I kind of came to
Speaker 2: it during the program, and I want to hear if
Speaker 2: you agree or disagree with me in this. We have
Speaker 2: a legislature in Massachusetts that does not want to stand
Speaker 2: up to the teachers' unions. With that we know, okay,
Speaker 2: the teachers' unions are now one of the most powerful
Speaker 2: political organizations in Massachusetts. We've invited the head of the
Speaker 2: teachers' union, the mass Teachers Association, to commit and join us.
Speaker 2: He's more than welcome any night. His name is Max Page.
Speaker 2: We'd be more than happy to have him come on
Speaker 2: and discuss what the teachers' unions really are looking for.
Speaker 2: If you're interested, go to the Massachusetts Department of Education
Speaker 2: slash teacher salaries and you can see how much teachers
Speaker 2: the average teacher in the school system the community in
Speaker 2: which you live receive. Okay, you'll find that interesting. Make
Speaker 2: note that the statistics there are from calendar year twenty twenty,
Speaker 2: twenty twenty one. For those of you paying attention, it
Speaker 2: is now November of twenty twenty four, so those statistics,
Speaker 2: those salaries, as generous as they as they appear, are
Speaker 2: already three years old. So I have a simple solution
Speaker 2: to avoid what is being inflicted on people, families, students
Speaker 2: and parents in Marblehead, Gloucester and Beverly, and that is this.
Speaker 2: Teacher strikes are illegal in Massachusetts, but it doesn't matter.
Speaker 2: I believe that at least two of the teachers' union
Speaker 2: should have been in court today. Listening to the various
Speaker 2: news stations tonight, it didn't appear that those court hearings occurred.
Speaker 2: And that's often the case. A judge says, you got
Speaker 2: to be back, we've got to stop this strike by
Speaker 2: noon on Tuesday. Well, noon on Tuesday comes, and noon
Speaker 2: on Tuesday and Wednesday comes. Occasionally there's a judge who
Speaker 2: will stand up to the teachers union, but that's some
Speaker 2: few and far between. So here's my simple proposal. If
Speaker 2: let us say a contract, a teacher's contract in any
Speaker 2: Massachusetts community is to end, they all end on June thirtieth,
Speaker 2: at the end of the of the school year. So
Speaker 2: what I would suggest is that the union and the
Speaker 2: school committees should be informed by the state legislature that
Speaker 2: one year before the contract is supposed to be renewed,
Speaker 2: which would be the following September first. So when when
Speaker 2: the final year of the school contract is about to
Speaker 2: begin on September first, the previous July in August, the
Speaker 2: union and the school committee or whoever's the bargaining agent
Speaker 2: have to spend some time not during the school year
Speaker 2: but in July and August negotiating. Now, if they can
Speaker 2: negotiate an agreement a year ahead of time, that's great,
Speaker 2: much better than negotiating an agreement a year into the contract,
Speaker 2: which of course makes it possible for them to strike
Speaker 2: during the year. Now, let's assume that they have. Let's
Speaker 2: just use as an example. Let's assume that these contracts
Speaker 2: were due to be renewed on September first of this year,
Speaker 2: which I think they were. That means that a year ago,
Speaker 2: in the summer of twenty twenty three, July and August
Speaker 2: the twenty twenty three, there should have been contract conversations,
Speaker 2: serious discussions begun. If they completed their negotiations successfully and
Speaker 2: everybody was happy, which is unlikely because one side will
Speaker 2: always fight the other, then they start in September. They
Speaker 2: would have started in this September to the final year
Speaker 2: of the contract. Okay, so the contract ends. The last
Speaker 2: year of the contract ends on June thirtieth. On that
Speaker 2: next summer, the union and the school committee is forced
Speaker 2: to negotiate, and that negotiation would be overseen by some
Speaker 2: sort of a mediator or an arbiter, and eventually it
Speaker 2: would be binding arbitration, which would mean sometime around August fifteenth,
Speaker 2: the arbiter would say to both the union and to
Speaker 2: this community, I want your last and final offer, and
Speaker 2: then the arbiter would decide what the contract will be. Okay,
Speaker 2: now I know that that would drive the union crazy,
Speaker 2: it probably would drive the school committee's crazy, but it
Speaker 2: would force an agreement binding arbitration. So that means that
Speaker 2: if there would be an incentive built in for both
Speaker 2: to be more reasonable and if they weren't, if let's
Speaker 2: say the union said we want ten, twelve and fourteen
Speaker 2: percent of the next three year contract and the community
Speaker 2: offered I don't know, you know, two four and six
Speaker 2: on a three year contract, then it would be after
Speaker 2: the arbit to decide which it is, and the arbita
Speaker 2: could go completely for the school committee or go completely
Speaker 2: for the union. I'll be somewhere in between. That is
Speaker 2: my humble proposal, because if that proposal was ever adopted
Speaker 2: by our legislature, it would ensure that there would be
Speaker 2: no strikes during the school year because one the negotiations
Speaker 2: would have occurred a year ahead of time, would have
Speaker 2: begun a here ahead of time, and they would have
Speaker 2: to have been done in July and August during summer vacation,
Speaker 2: so the union leaders they would have an incentive to
Speaker 2: get the negotiations over with, as would the school committee.
Speaker 2: I think it's a pretty simple idea, and I think
Speaker 2: that it is one that we should look at very
Speaker 2: seriously here in Massachusetts. Now, I'm going to open up
Speaker 2: the phone lines. I'm going to hope that I hear
Speaker 2: from you. If you agree with me and you think
Speaker 2: it's a good idea, tell me. If you disagree with me,
Speaker 2: tell me why. Bottom line is there is a social contract.
Speaker 2: I'll come back to where I started. This is not
Speaker 2: the UAW, the Autoworkers of America on the line, This
Speaker 2: is not Boeing, This is not even radio and TV
Speaker 2: stations employees. This is a social contract that exists between
Speaker 2: the community and the teachers. No one has drafted these
Speaker 2: teachers to become teachers. No one has forced them to
Speaker 2: become teachers. They have asked and studied to become teachers.
Speaker 2: There's a lot of benefits to being a teacher. One
Speaker 2: of them is not you know, million dollar salaries. Now,
Speaker 2: if you work long enough, if you work thirty years,
Speaker 2: you can make three four million dollars as a teacher,
Speaker 2: and you're going to get a really good pension at
Speaker 2: the end of the day. But your job is to
Speaker 2: educate kids and not go out and strike during the
Speaker 2: school year. Six one seven, two, five, four ten thirty
Speaker 2: six one seven, nine three one ten thirty. I am
Speaker 2: deadly serious. This is what should be adopted. I'm sure
Speaker 2: there will be people who will of all sorts of objections.
Speaker 2: That's fine, let's hear them, let's get them out on
Speaker 2: the table, and I'm sure there'll be some people out
Speaker 2: there are going to say that's a pretty good idea.
Speaker 2: Give me a call. Six one seven, two, five four
Speaker 2: ten thirty six one seven, nine three one ten thirty.
Speaker 2: I'm trying to make you think that I don't care
Speaker 2: what you think. I just want to make sure you're thinking.
Speaker 2: I thought about this last night. This is what I've
Speaker 2: come up with. Come up with your own idea, come up,
Speaker 2: let's but let's talk about it back here on Nightside
Speaker 2: right after this.
Speaker 1: Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World
Speaker 1: Nightside Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2: Okay, when I use the word social contract, I'm using
Speaker 2: that specifically because there is a contract here that's above
Speaker 2: and beyond salary. The salaries for teachers in Massachusetts are good, Okay,
Speaker 2: are good. I've heard about some of the things that
Speaker 2: are being asked for, like recovery rooms for teachers and stuff.
Speaker 2: Come on, guys, come on, you picked the profession. Okay.
Speaker 2: Every job has its pluses and every job has its minuses,
Speaker 2: and you cannot eliminate every inconvenience, every minus from a job.
Speaker 2: Sometimes you're going to get a kid in a classroom.
Speaker 2: It was tough to deal with. I want you to
Speaker 2: have support on that. But at the same time, you
Speaker 2: have engaged in a social contract. You have said I
Speaker 2: want to be a teacher. I want to be a
Speaker 2: teacher because I want to teach kids, not because I
Speaker 2: want to walk up picket line. Let's go to the calls.
Speaker 2: Agree to disagree, that's fine, it's I just want to
Speaker 2: have a conversation because I think this is going to
Speaker 2: be soon a very critical subject for people in Massachusetts
Speaker 2: to look at and consider and actually come to a conclusion.
Speaker 2: Justin and Marlborough, Justin, thanks for calling in. How are
Speaker 2: you tonight?
Speaker 3: Welcome in good stings sense to taking back call. I
Speaker 3: like you, I like your idea and I think the
Speaker 3: teachers to be grateful, because what annoys me is that
Speaker 3: it's against the law to strike, and laws don't mean
Speaker 3: anything in the state. We have an attorney general that
Speaker 3: was hard to say it's not illegal to be illegal.
Speaker 3: I mean, it's amazing to me. And what happened in
Speaker 3: Franklin back in the nineteen seventies, this would solve all
Speaker 3: our problems. They invested to teach.
Speaker 2: Refreshed my recollection. What happened to Franklin.
Speaker 3: Justin the Franklin teachers, I think it was very nineteen
Speaker 3: seventy eight went on strike and my neighbor was a
Speaker 3: state trooper and his wife was a teacher, and they
Speaker 3: made the front page of the Boston New Boston Globe
Speaker 3: because he arrested her and they spent a week in jail.
Speaker 3: They got strip searched. Trust me, the Franklin teachers never
Speaker 3: went on strike again.
Speaker 2: Wow, was his wife the head of the union.
Speaker 3: No, I don't as soon as soon as a junior
Speaker 3: high math teacher.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, normally, very rarely did our teachers put in
Speaker 2: jail because they all were a contempt here. I didn't
Speaker 2: realize they were all put in jail. I gotta go
Speaker 2: back to check. I know, well it is illegal. But
Speaker 2: what happens is the judgment committed. The judge will say,
Speaker 2: look to the union leaders, if you don't order your
Speaker 2: teachers back to work by tomorrow at eight o'clock, we're
Speaker 2: gonna find you ten thousand dollars a day, and if
Speaker 2: you don't come back the next day, the final will
Speaker 2: be double the twenty thousand. Then it will be double
Speaker 2: to forty thousand. So what happens is sometimes when they
Speaker 2: finally do settle, the judge will say, okay, you have settled.
Speaker 2: We're going to cut the fines back to ten thousand
Speaker 2: dollars and that'll be paid by the Massachusetts Teachers Association,
Speaker 2: and of course it'll eventually be recaptured in the dues
Speaker 2: from the from the teachers, because the dues are going
Speaker 2: to go up. And everybody kind of figures it's a wash,
Speaker 2: but it's just not fair. The people who are victimized
Speaker 2: here are the kids and the parents of kids. Most
Speaker 2: parents work during the day, you know, particularly if the
Speaker 2: kids are older, maybe they have a babysitter but lined up,
Speaker 2: or what happens if if they don't have a babysitter
Speaker 2: lined up during the school day because they assume that
Speaker 2: kids are going to be in school. What do they
Speaker 2: do for their job? It's it's it's nothing.
Speaker 3: And none of the teachers in Newton looked stressed or
Speaker 3: worried when they were on stress. They didn't have the
Speaker 3: wory of getting arrested. They didn't having fun.
Speaker 2: Oh it's like it's well, I don't think they enjoyed
Speaker 2: being outside in the middle of January. But putting that aside, yeah,
Speaker 2: it was, uh, it was kind of a party atmosphere.
Speaker 2: So that's yeah, that's something that I think is troubling.
Speaker 2: I really do think it's troubling, and I think that
Speaker 2: I think that my proposal is one that the legislatures
Speaker 2: should consider because I think this teacher strike thing is
Speaker 2: only going to get worser in Massachusetts as time goes on.
Speaker 3: Justin, I hope you listen to you, Dan. I look
Speaker 3: forward to seeing the dan Way.
Speaker 2: Teacher. Yeah, the the the teachers strike law. We'll see. Thanks,
Speaker 2: talk to you soon. Have a great night. Good I okay,
Speaker 2: all right, So that opens up one line at six, one, seven, two, five, four,
Speaker 2: ten thirty. When we get back, I got Claudette, I
Speaker 2: got Bill, and I got some room for you at
Speaker 2: six one, seven nine. I'm making a very serious proposal.
Speaker 2: I hope that someone in the legislature's listening and says, hey,
Speaker 2: this is something. All this is doing insane to teachers unions. Look,
Speaker 2: start your negotiation a year in advance. If so happens
Speaker 2: that you come to an agreement, that's great, that provides
Speaker 2: continuity of school. If you don't get together on an
Speaker 2: agreement a year in advance, then the summer before you
Speaker 2: got to go back to school without a contract. I
Speaker 2: don't want teachers going back to school without a contract.
Speaker 2: You got to have a negotiation. And it's only in
Speaker 2: July and August, okay, and on August fifteenth. If you
Speaker 2: haven't come to an agreement, if everything hasn't been decided,
Speaker 2: if everything hasn't been decided, then you are going to
Speaker 2: submit to the to the arbiter or the mediator, you know,
Speaker 2: be compulsory or compulsory arbitration, compulsory mediation, and they will decide.
Speaker 2: So it's the same way that goes on in professional
Speaker 2: sports when a player and a team kind of agree,
Speaker 2: depending upon the situation. Sometimes they say to a player,
Speaker 2: go ahead, go find somewhere else. You can't do that
Speaker 2: with teachers. You can't do it with teachers. But we
Speaker 2: got to do something that's going to change the dynamic
Speaker 2: and stop the teacher strikes for the sake for truly,
Speaker 2: for the sake of the students, and for the sake
Speaker 2: of the parents and the families of the students. I
Speaker 2: firmly believe in what I'm saying. I hope you'll agree
Speaker 2: or disagree. I don't care which, but I'd love to
Speaker 2: hear from you coming back on Nightside.
Speaker 1: Night Side with Dan Ray. I'm telling you Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2: All right, back we go. Let me go to Claude Dette,
Speaker 2: who is joining us tonight from New Bedford. Claude ed
Speaker 2: welcome to Nightside. How are you?
Speaker 4: I'm fine? Thank you yourself.
Speaker 2: Doing just great. I don't know that I've ever had
Speaker 2: the pleasure of you calling my show. Is this your
Speaker 2: first time calling?
Speaker 3: Now?
Speaker 4: A first time call?
Speaker 2: Well, you're going to get you a role of a
Speaker 2: posse of my digital studio audience. You go right ahead.
Speaker 2: What's your thought on this?
Speaker 3: Uh?
Speaker 4: I am a former teacher. I've not since retired, but
Speaker 4: in New Bedford and nineteen sixty eight, we were the
Speaker 4: first ones to go on strike, and people were arrested
Speaker 4: and they went to jail. And this was done the
Speaker 4: teacher beginning of the school year.
Speaker 2: No, let me ask you, was it the teachers or
Speaker 2: the leadership? Did they arrest teachers? Just teachers as well
Speaker 2: as the school.
Speaker 4: They arrested teachers the I think they did direst some administrators,
Speaker 4: but they had to separate after that.
Speaker 2: They had no What I meant was normally what I've
Speaker 2: seen happen is that they have. When I was a
Speaker 2: reporter and TV clad, they would order the union leaders
Speaker 2: to tell the union to go back to work, and
Speaker 2: then they would threaten the union leaders with prison. Justin
Speaker 2: talked about teachers being arrested in Framingham. I you know, again,
Speaker 2: I'm not interested in seeing teachers being arrested. I don't
Speaker 2: think that's a good thing. Did you think about my
Speaker 2: idea about forcing them to have the negotiations? Seems to
Speaker 2: me like they always wait till they've been working without
Speaker 2: a contract for six months, and I just think that's dumb.
Speaker 2: Get it done early.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: True, I agree with you on that most certainly. Getting
Speaker 4: back to the new Bedford situation, the strike occurred prior
Speaker 4: to the beginning of the school year, so that was
Speaker 4: pretty good. But I'm curious, as do the teachers in
Speaker 4: those areas around Boston. Do they get their health insurance
Speaker 4: from the school department? Are they given that?
Speaker 2: Yes, I believe every teacher in Massachusetts gets their health insurance.
Speaker 2: I'm sure that is a part of the contract negotiation,
Speaker 2: and they should get their health insurance from the community.
Speaker 4: Well, right, I guess they do it in New Bedford now,
Speaker 4: But I remember I paid my own health insurance.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I mean, things have gotten better for teachers unions, as
Speaker 2: they should have, but I think we've reached a tipping
Speaker 2: point when the teachers' unions they most teachers in Massachusetts,
Speaker 2: even in the smallest communities, are making you know, on average,
Speaker 2: eighty thousand dollars, okay, and in a lot of communities
Speaker 2: they're making one hundred thousand dollars, a salary that you
Speaker 2: can't even you would not have even talked about. Obviously,
Speaker 2: the economy is different today. You couldn't live today on
Speaker 2: what you were paid when you were a teacher. So
Speaker 2: I don't mind seeing teachers having competitive salaries. I mean
Speaker 2: I would support that.
Speaker 5: Well.
Speaker 4: I retired in two thousand and three, and I was
Speaker 4: on maximum pay for my step increase was fifty six
Speaker 4: thousand dollars.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and again back twenty years ago, that was a
Speaker 2: pretty decent salary. You weren't going to become a millionaire,
Speaker 2: but that was a decent salary. When I graduated from college,
Speaker 2: which was, you know, in the last century, I actually was.
Speaker 2: I was an English major before I went to law school,
Speaker 2: and I had a minor teaching certificate. And at that time, teachers,
Speaker 2: this was in the nineteen seventies, you could look forward
Speaker 2: to making maybe twenty thousand dollars as a starting teacher,
Speaker 2: and I thought to myself, Wow, twenty thousand dollars over
Speaker 2: career thirty years, that's going to be six hundred thousand dollars. Obviously,
Speaker 2: salaries have increased across the board since then as well
Speaker 2: they should. But teachers now, on average in Massachusetts, you know,
Speaker 2: there are exceptions, but you can look at the Department
Speaker 2: of Education statistics can eighty ninety thousand dollars on average. Now,
Speaker 2: starting teachers make less, experienced teachers make more, but on
Speaker 2: average eighty ninety thousand dollars, and many teachers now make
Speaker 2: in excess of one hundred thousand dollars, which is fine.
Speaker 2: I don't have a problem with that, but I think
Speaker 2: that those salaries should be decided in advance of a
Speaker 2: school year and the teacher should not use the students
Speaker 2: as leverage. That's what I'm saying.
Speaker 4: And I have another question. Are these teachers being paid
Speaker 4: while they're on strike?
Speaker 3: Are they drawing?
Speaker 2: Well, no, I think that in one of the communities,
Speaker 2: I think it was marvel Head, the teachers have been
Speaker 2: told they will not be paid during while they're on strike.
Speaker 2: But what happens is when they finally come to an agreement,
Speaker 2: the union will say to the school committee, look, we
Speaker 2: want you to give us back pay for the one
Speaker 2: week or if we run strike. In the school committee
Speaker 2: at that point, well, we'll go ahead and pay them
Speaker 2: because that money was budgeted. So that's what that's generally
Speaker 2: what happens in the situation. In situation likeage, the school
Speaker 2: committee as part of the agreement. You know, at that
Speaker 2: point we're all singing Kumbai yah and the glad that
Speaker 2: the strike is over. So the union has all the
Speaker 2: leverage here in my opinion. In my opinion, Claudette, thank
Speaker 2: you for what you did as a teacher. I'm sure
Speaker 2: that you have a lot of pride in the young
Speaker 2: men and women who you run into today at the
Speaker 2: grocery store or on the street, and they'll say, hey,
Speaker 2: how are you remember me? I was a student of yours.
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, that happens all the time. Let me say
Speaker 4: you one thing, if you became if you became an
Speaker 4: English teacher, yep, you would be working long hours every day,
Speaker 4: correcting essays and everything else. English teachers had it the worst.
Speaker 4: I mean when you know people are saying, oh, the
Speaker 4: only work six hours a day now because you've got
Speaker 4: to bring home all your correction and all this other
Speaker 4: stuff and you have to do your lesson plans.
Speaker 3: Do you know what?
Speaker 2: Do you know what time I start to work every day?
Speaker 2: I do a show from eight to midnight. What time
Speaker 2: do you think I start working every day? Oh?
Speaker 4: I don't have no idea.
Speaker 2: Nine o'clock in the morning. I'm on the phone at
Speaker 2: nine o'clock in the morning with my producer Marita uh,
Speaker 2: and we're going over, Okay, what are we thinking about?
Speaker 2: You know what, what are the possible issues we can
Speaker 2: talk about tonight? Okay. So and again I do it
Speaker 2: because I like it. Do I have to do it? No,
Speaker 2: I could quit tomorrow if I wanted to. But I
Speaker 2: like my job and I enjoy conversing with people like
Speaker 2: yourself and learning from you and learning from Justin and
Speaker 2: Marlborough from different different experiences. For me, that's the best
Speaker 2: part of the day when I get a chance to
Speaker 2: talk with you. But during the day it can be agonizing.
Speaker 2: What what stories are we going to cover? What are
Speaker 2: we going to do? Are people going to be interested
Speaker 2: in this? You know, I'm not getting overwhelmed with phone
Speaker 2: calls on this topic, but I'm sticking with it because
Speaker 2: I think it's an incredibly important topic, not only for
Speaker 2: the Comwalth of Massachusetts. It's important for the teachers' unions.
Speaker 2: It's important for the students, and it's important for the parents.
Speaker 2: This is not the sexiest topic in the world to
Speaker 2: talk about, Claudette, but I'm.
Speaker 3: Oh, I know, I'm.
Speaker 2: Committed to doing it, and I can't tell you how
Speaker 2: much I appreciate that you would take the time to
Speaker 2: call and share your experience and thank you for the job.
Speaker 4: Okay, sir, thank you very much.
Speaker 2: Dan, You're very welcome. Hope to hear from me again. Thanks.
Speaker 2: Thanks claud thank you very much. Maybe I hope so
Speaker 2: looking forward to your second call. No applause in the
Speaker 2: second call, but you got the applause tonight, Thanks Claude.
Speaker 4: Okay, thank you, good night, six.
Speaker 2: Seven, good night six one seven, two, five, four, ten thirty.
Speaker 2: I'm going to talk about this till ten o'clock. Okay,
Speaker 2: Bill and Natick awaits on the other side. And if
Speaker 2: you don't think this is an important subject, you're not thinking.
Speaker 2: And if you're not thinking, you shouldn't be listening to
Speaker 2: Night Side, because that's what my job is is to
Speaker 2: make you think. I don't care what you think. I mean,
Speaker 2: you know, I care what you think, but I just
Speaker 2: want you to think think about this. This is a
Speaker 2: proposal that I think is important, not because I came
Speaker 2: up with it, but it is a reform that we
Speaker 2: could consider here in Massachusetts which might make life easier
Speaker 2: for parents, for students, and for teachers. The union won't
Speaker 2: support this, I guarantee you that. I guarantee you that,
Speaker 2: but if teachers think about it, they'll realize this will
Speaker 2: make their lives easier and it'll make their students' lives better.
Speaker 2: And that's what I think. Good teachers are all about.
Speaker 2: Will be back on Nightside right after this.
Speaker 1: Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World
Speaker 1: Place Side Studios. I'm WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2: Next is Bill and Natick. Bill, I appreciate you holding
Speaker 2: on you Next on Nightside, go right ahead.
Speaker 6: Well, I was a pleasure talk to you.
Speaker 5: My background is I've never been a teacher, and I
Speaker 5: wouldn't want to be one. However, I am an elected
Speaker 5: town meeting member. My neighbors wrote my name in without
Speaker 5: telling me, and they've re elected me for forty seven years.
Speaker 5: But I just want to say that I'm not surprised
Speaker 5: that I agree with you on your plan. I agree
Speaker 5: with many of the things you've said over the years.
Speaker 5: But what strikes me in particular about these three towns
Speaker 5: I would like information. I would like to know when
Speaker 5: either side first requested to Bogging about the contract. You know,
Speaker 5: was it at the end of the school year or
Speaker 5: was it beforehand?
Speaker 6: The other thing that, yeah, Bill.
Speaker 2: Hold of a second, I don't have an answer to
Speaker 2: that question, but I will tell you I think that
Speaker 2: human nature, you tend to put the things off, you know.
Speaker 2: I don't care if it's doctor's appointments or dentist appointments,
Speaker 2: or you've got to go to the store. I think
Speaker 2: people we tend to kind of, Oh, the Patriots game
Speaker 2: is on, I'll watch them, you know, That's all I'm saying.
Speaker 2: And I think that the proposal I'm making would force them.
Speaker 2: You know, in professional sports, if you're a professional athlete,
Speaker 2: the team has to offer you a contract by a
Speaker 2: certain data you become a free agent. They you know,
Speaker 2: they got to make a decision, and then you've got
Speaker 2: to decide by a certain date if you want to
Speaker 2: accept that offer or not. There are there are there
Speaker 2: were rules and regulations imposed because if you did that,
Speaker 2: the Red Sox would open the season in April and
Speaker 2: half the team would be minor league Baseball players and
Speaker 2: the lot of the guys would be sitting sitting at
Speaker 2: home waiting for a contract offer. It'say, now, no, I'm
Speaker 2: just no, no, but I just they were just say,
Speaker 2: you're joking here, but you want to see your best
Speaker 2: players on the field on opening day. Same way with
Speaker 2: the Patriots. You know, they got to report the camp
Speaker 2: by a certain date, and if they don't report the
Speaker 2: camp by a certain date, they get fot. I mean,
Speaker 2: it just makes common sense is what I'm truly trying
Speaker 2: to say, And so that's.
Speaker 5: I agree with you wholeheartedly. But one of the things
Speaker 5: that strikes me about this situation is I would consider
Speaker 5: a teacher strike an emergency, wouldn't you?
Speaker 2: Yes? I would.
Speaker 5: Yes, if I was a school community member and I say, well,
Speaker 5: we want to buy it first thing in the morning,
Speaker 5: at nine o'clock, or if these two towns didsa at
Speaker 5: nine o'clock and ten o'clock. One of the towns says, no,
Speaker 5: we can't get together at three o'clock.
Speaker 2: Well, I think the time to begin the bargaining would
Speaker 2: have been months ago. They should because.
Speaker 5: Now we have an emergency.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I get it. No, I get it. I totally
Speaker 2: get it. Yeah.
Speaker 5: So that makes me suspect a little bit more. I
Speaker 5: always want the facts, and I agree with you. I
Speaker 5: think your plan is a way to go, and I
Speaker 5: wish we could all adopt it.
Speaker 2: Well, let's see, I wish I had more people responding
Speaker 2: to the call tonight. But that's okay.
Speaker 5: This is one that this is a shortness I've ever waited.
Speaker 5: I've called it times over the years, but most times
Speaker 5: I can't wait.
Speaker 2: But no, I just say that and I do appreciate.
Speaker 2: But I what I'm saying is that this is one
Speaker 2: that makes people think. And I don't know. I I'm
Speaker 2: not going to put the same show on the radio
Speaker 2: every night. I mean, I'm I spend time during the
Speaker 2: day trying to come up with even if it's the
Speaker 2: same subject, I want to get a different angle on it.
Speaker 5: I want to get a different And you do a
Speaker 5: good job, you know.
Speaker 2: So well, whatever, and I'll do it as long as
Speaker 2: I can. And when when my time is up, you'll
Speaker 2: have another talk show host.
Speaker 5: Who maybe I'm in real estate, do a lot of
Speaker 5: rentals and I'll be eighty next year. But you know,
Speaker 5: I'm going to do it as long as I can.
Speaker 2: You got it all right, because you like the job.
Speaker 2: That's what it comes down to. Bill. Appreciate your call
Speaker 2: very much.
Speaker 6: Thank you, Okay, you for being man.
Speaker 2: Thank you very much. Good night. Let me go to
Speaker 2: Mike and Lynn. Mike your next time nights. I appreciate
Speaker 2: you calling in.
Speaker 6: Go ahead, Mike, Hey, mister Dan, how are you doing today.
Speaker 2: I'm doing great. Go ahead, Mike. What's what's your take
Speaker 2: on this?
Speaker 6: Mike taking this? I do agree with the teachers Per's
Speaker 6: good people. And if you do the math, ninety percent
Speaker 6: of the workforce they are women and they are good people.
Speaker 6: I gotta tell you this story. In two thousand and two,
Speaker 6: I was a single father living in North Quincy. Now
Speaker 6: I live in Land, and I will remember always missus Lyon.
Speaker 6: My daughter was going to PMS. I didn't know what
Speaker 6: PMS is, and she helped me and she used to
Speaker 6: check on me every Saturday. So ninety or one hundred
Speaker 6: percent of all the teachers there are women, and there
Speaker 6: are good people, and they deserve the best.
Speaker 2: So the question, though, is this, This is the question.
Speaker 2: I don't disagree with you, okay. As matter of fact,
Speaker 2: I think teachers become teachers all the right reasons. Now
Speaker 2: I do think that some teachers get burned out, but
Speaker 2: that's a story for another day. It just seems to
Speaker 2: me that once the school year starts, the contract should
Speaker 2: be in place. The teachers should be satisfied, they should
Speaker 2: know what they're receiving. How would you like to be
Speaker 2: a parent. You said you were the parent of a daughter,
Speaker 2: single dad, How would you like to have been I
Speaker 2: assume you probably were working and your daughter went off
Speaker 2: to school, and you went off to work and the
Speaker 2: difficult set of circumstances. I get it. How would you
Speaker 2: like to have seen the Quincy teachers you and you
Speaker 2: go out and strike? How would you be able to
Speaker 2: take care of your daughter during the day and still
Speaker 2: go to work. You couldn't do both things simultaneously, right.
Speaker 3: I couldn't do both.
Speaker 6: But I agree with them, and the reason why I
Speaker 6: think because they have three months off in the year
Speaker 6: and they getting paid. They don't getting paid enough. They
Speaker 6: can even afford to have a house. They have to
Speaker 6: have that or boyfriend so they can make cup four expensive?
Speaker 2: How much? Let me ask you this. You live in Lynn, right,
Speaker 2: do you own a house in Linn?
Speaker 6: I own a house in Line A play and I
Speaker 6: guess you pay?
Speaker 2: Yeah, you pay your your taxes. I understand that. What
Speaker 2: do you think the average teacher makes in Linn?
Speaker 6: You know, in the Linn publics fifty sixty five Maybe
Speaker 6: if they're lucky, ninety thousands, but I don't think so.
Speaker 6: To be honest with you.
Speaker 2: Okay, I'm going to tell you what they make. Okay.
Speaker 2: In I'm looking at the state reports here from uh
Speaker 2: this is twenty and twenty to twenty twenty one. So
Speaker 2: these are the latest numbers they have. Okay, the latest
Speaker 2: numbers that we have is from twenty twenty one. The
Speaker 2: average salary in Lind, the average salary in Linn four
Speaker 2: years ago eighty two, one hundred and sixty two dollars.
Speaker 2: That's not a bad salary four years So.
Speaker 6: You've got to you've gotta have to keep in mind
Speaker 6: the expenses. They have a lot of expenses. They have children,
Speaker 6: They have kids, they have a house.
Speaker 2: Shure they do. How much should they? How much should
Speaker 2: the how much? Then? If if the teachers salary, average
Speaker 2: teacher salary is eighty two thousand dollars four years ago
Speaker 2: in Lind, it's probably about ninety five thousand dollars today.
Speaker 2: But let's assume it's ninety how much should teachers in
Speaker 2: Lind What should the average salary be? Give me a number, I.
Speaker 6: Will say, honestly, not only in Lint, No, I'm talking
Speaker 6: about in Lind one twenty one.
Speaker 2: Hundred twenty Okay, good luck with that.
Speaker 3: You're you.
Speaker 2: I hope you you realize that you'll be paying for that,
Speaker 2: so your real estate taxes will go up dramatically. And
Speaker 2: I think you're a better person than I am to
Speaker 2: think that the teachers should be, on an average receiving that.
Speaker 6: Much money because you know, you know the reason why,
Speaker 6: the reason why they go to work every single day,
Speaker 6: and they too kids.
Speaker 2: And I'm gonna put up with callers. Hey, Mike, I
Speaker 2: hate to do this to you, but I'm flat out
Speaker 2: of time. Have you called before since your first time calling?
Speaker 6: This is my first time calling.
Speaker 2: I gotta give you a bun and a clause and
Speaker 2: I'm looking forward to your calling back. You a great caller.
Speaker 2: Thank you, Mike. I appreciate it very much. We had
Speaker 2: done with this topic. Sadly, we will change topics right
Speaker 2: after the ten o'clock news Here at night Side