Speaker 1: It's night Sime with Dan Ray. I'm telling easy.
Speaker 2: We're talking about three illegal teacher strikes that will be
Speaker 2: ongoing tomorrow, one in Gloucester, one in Beverly and one
Speaker 2: in marble Head. This is a bad situation for the
Speaker 2: students and for the people who live in those communities.
Speaker 2: Now I know that parents because I was a parent
Speaker 2: and still am. But I was a parent of kids
Speaker 2: in school and one of the things you always want
Speaker 2: to make sure of is that your child is treated
Speaker 2: as well as fairly as possible, and so it's very
Speaker 2: difficult for parents for those communities to call and complain. However,
Speaker 2: I will tell you that this is very difficult. It's
Speaker 2: a tremendous imposition on them. And my proposal is very simple,
Speaker 2: and that is that all all negotiations between a community
Speaker 2: and the teachers' union would be limited to the months
Speaker 2: of July and August. They can begin the negotiations a
Speaker 2: year before the contract is to expire, and then in
Speaker 2: the summer after the contract has expired, they would renew
Speaker 2: the conversations, the negotiations with a mediator, arbiter, whatever you want,
Speaker 2: and there would be a final decision made by the
Speaker 2: mediator the arbiter in late August, so there would be
Speaker 2: no interruption in school, and the new contract for whatever
Speaker 2: length three years, two years, four years, would go into
Speaker 2: effect the day the school starts. There would be no
Speaker 2: interruption by an illegal strike if all of the negotiations
Speaker 2: were completed by the day that the other contract expires
Speaker 2: or when the new contract would have to be in place.
Speaker 2: It's as simple as that. What the teachers Union does
Speaker 2: is theyay, delayed, delay, and then they have a strike.
Speaker 2: And I am interested in your thoughts on it. I've
Speaker 2: made mind pretty clear. I'm sure there are some teachers
Speaker 2: out there who are upset with my Maybe there's some
Speaker 2: teachers out there who agree with me. I think that
Speaker 2: the Teachers' Union, the leadership of the teachers Union, is
Speaker 2: doing a disservice not only to their members, but also
Speaker 2: to the students that their members teach, and to the
Speaker 2: parents and the community, the residents of these communities that
Speaker 2: pay the teachers salaries. Guys, get back to the calls.
Speaker 2: I'd love to do this for another hour. I think
Speaker 2: this is a critically important issue, and I think it's
Speaker 2: a critically important issue that you should be able to
Speaker 2: speak about. Let's go to Steve and Lynn. Steve, agree
Speaker 2: or disagree, You're next on Nightsig, go right ahead, Steve.
Speaker 3: Welcome, Hey, hey Dan, thank you. First, I'll get this
Speaker 3: out of the way. I agree that they should not
Speaker 3: be able to strike. But you mentioned that the union
Speaker 3: uses the children as leverage, and I would argue with
Speaker 3: you that the administrations and the cities and towns do
Speaker 3: the same thing as well.
Speaker 2: Well, let me ask you this. Okay, I take your point,
Speaker 2: but let me ask you a question. How does the
Speaker 2: city in town take advantage of the children by not
Speaker 2: fulfilling or coming to an agreement that yet? Yeah, okay,
Speaker 2: so if the teacher okay, let me just ask a
Speaker 2: question and then I'll shut up and listen to that answer. Okay.
Speaker 2: So the teachers Union comes in and says we want
Speaker 2: in this particular negotiation that we talked with the chair
Speaker 2: of the school committee up in Marblehead earlier, Jennifer Schaffner,
Speaker 2: the teachers Union is looking for a thirty three percent
Speaker 2: pay raise over four years, essentially, you know, eight, eight,
Speaker 2: eight and eight over the next four years. The average
Speaker 2: salary right now of the teachers Union is around ninety
Speaker 2: six thousand dollars you can do the math. Eight thousand
Speaker 2: is going to eight percent, is going to get up
Speaker 2: to about one hundred and three. Another eight percent is
Speaker 2: going to get it up in the second year to
Speaker 2: about one hundred and eleven. The third year they may
Speaker 2: have about one hundred and twenty, and the fourth year
Speaker 2: they'll be you'd be topping out of one hundred and
Speaker 2: thirty thousand dollars. Is that reasonable?
Speaker 3: Absolutely not, So I'll tell you that. You know, in
Speaker 3: the marble Head situation, I'm not sure what's going on
Speaker 3: in Beverly and Gloucester. They're already those teachers are already
Speaker 3: at the higher end of the scale in the state.
Speaker 3: And to ask for a thirty two percent increase of
Speaker 3: a four years, I think is outrageous. Thirty three what
Speaker 3: I would so to my point about how the towns
Speaker 3: leverage the students, yep, and I'm married to an educator, okay,
Speaker 3: elementary school teacher.
Speaker 4: The teachers in the.
Speaker 3: Town where my wife works are always the last to
Speaker 3: get their contract. They settle with the police, they settle
Speaker 3: with the fire, they settle with the public works people first,
Speaker 3: and then and then they decide to sit down and
Speaker 3: negotiate with the teachers. So the teachers oftentimes work a
Speaker 3: year maybe two years without a contract, but they know
Speaker 3: they're going to do that because they're not going to strike,
Speaker 3: and they leave them till the very end. And then
Speaker 3: the police and fire gets three four five percent raises
Speaker 3: each year over the course of their contract. The teachers
Speaker 3: get two percent two and a half percent maybe over
Speaker 3: the course of their contract. So there's a pattern of,
Speaker 3: I would say, not good faith negotiation on the parts
Speaker 3: of the cities and towns here and the teachers in
Speaker 3: several situations. And I'm not saying in this particular situation
Speaker 3: the teachers are just kind of trying to stand up
Speaker 3: for themselves, which I don't think.
Speaker 2: I take your points. So my question is this, do
Speaker 2: not identify the town that your wife teachers in, But
Speaker 2: how long has she been teaching? Is how long has
Speaker 2: she been a teacher?
Speaker 4: Eighteen years, nineteen years?
Speaker 2: Okay, so she should be at the higher end of
Speaker 2: the pay scale. What's the average not your wife's salary,
Speaker 2: but what is the average salary of teachers in that
Speaker 2: school system?
Speaker 3: And I honestly I don't know off the top of
Speaker 3: my head, but she's nowhere near what the averages and
Speaker 3: marble Head. I can tell you that.
Speaker 2: Okay, there's a website that is run by the Massachusetts
Speaker 2: Department of Education Public Information. You can just google department
Speaker 2: at Massachusetts Department of Education or Massachusetts DOE slash teachers Salaries. Yeah,
Speaker 2: you are calling from Lynn. I don't know, and I
Speaker 2: don't want to know whether you teach her, whether your
Speaker 2: wife teaches in Lynn. However, let me if I can
Speaker 2: can really quickly google this and and we can talk
Speaker 2: about just Linn teachers. Since you if you own a
Speaker 2: home in Lynn, you're paying for it's your real estate taxes.
Speaker 2: That essentially I believe.
Speaker 4: I believe that so.
Speaker 3: And she does not teach in the Lynn school district.
Speaker 4: But I do know from from looking at around, I
Speaker 4: think Lynn is kind of a middle of the road
Speaker 4: type of type of district.
Speaker 2: Okay, so what do you think they have?
Speaker 4: Carlisle, mass is the highest to tell you the truth?
Speaker 2: Yeah, what do you What do you think of? What
Speaker 2: do you think teachers and Linn are.
Speaker 4: Getting on for the for their average?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 3: Yeah, maybe, I don't know. I don't even want to
Speaker 3: put a guest for if you have it there in
Speaker 3: front of you, just talking.
Speaker 2: I'm trying to get it right now. Just well, I'm
Speaker 2: aazitting to fill some time from me here, Okay.
Speaker 4: Uh yeah, So when your factor in the newbies who
Speaker 4: come in and the people who have been here for
Speaker 4: twenty five years, maybe maybe in in the low eighties.
Speaker 2: Okay, let's see, let's find let's find out. Let's see,
Speaker 2: and let's see what we got it. Okay. So Linn,
Speaker 2: the average teacher salary in Linn, Okay, and I want
Speaker 2: to make sure that I got the correct number here.
Speaker 2: Average salary in Linn as of two thousand and twenty one,
Speaker 2: the Colondar year twenty twenty to twenty twenty one, you're
Speaker 2: pretty close eighty two thousand, one hundred and sixty two dollars.
Speaker 2: So that's four years ago. So if you were to
Speaker 2: give it a two percent raise, they're probably now closer
Speaker 2: to the mid nineties for an average salary in Lynn
Speaker 2: or the loan nineties. In Marblehead, which is the school
Speaker 2: district we were talking to earlier, the average salary is
Speaker 2: eighty four thousand, so is pretty close. And Gloucester, which
Speaker 2: again four years ago. Now I assumed that the salaries
Speaker 2: have gone up gloss of eighty six three hundred and
Speaker 2: sixty and Beverly was right around that area. Now, I
Speaker 2: would assume that in four years those salaries have all
Speaker 2: gone up, so they're all kind of grouped very similarly.
Speaker 2: You know, there's a lot of people who are paying
Speaker 2: the real estate taxes in Lennon elsewhere who are not
Speaker 2: making anywhere near that.
Speaker 3: You had a guest earlier, say a college say that.
Speaker 3: You know a lot of these teachers don't even live
Speaker 3: in that town, so they don't care about the town. Well,
Speaker 3: they can't afford to live in those towns, is what would.
Speaker 4: Be my argument back.
Speaker 3: They'd love to live in Marblehead, but they can't afford
Speaker 3: it based on their salaries.
Speaker 2: So everyone, no matter what they do, whether you're a
Speaker 2: plumber or electrician or or or whatever, you you make
Speaker 2: you determinations on where you live. You know, in a
Speaker 2: lot of different communities. Obviously are great communities, but you know,
Speaker 2: everybody decides they want to be a teacher. What do
Speaker 2: you think about the idea since your wife is a
Speaker 2: teacher or an educator, what do you think about the
Speaker 2: idea that all the negotiations can only be done in
Speaker 2: the months of July and August, So if let us
Speaker 2: say you had a contract that was going to expire
Speaker 2: this this June thirtieth, the school committee and the teachers'
Speaker 2: unions would have to have some negotiations this past summer,
Speaker 2: and then when the contract expires next June, they would
Speaker 2: have to have negotiations and then have to sit with
Speaker 2: a mediator and arboritrumy you know, binding arbitration, and they
Speaker 2: would then be a contract would be agreed upon by
Speaker 2: the beginning of the new school year, so there would
Speaker 2: be no interruption. Parents would know that what the schedule was.
Speaker 2: And would you would you think your wife and her
Speaker 2: union or her fellow teachers would support that. I do.
Speaker 4: I'm not gonna speak for them, but I personally have
Speaker 4: no problem with that. But I would say you should
Speaker 4: put similar guardrails around police, fire municipal workers, state and
Speaker 4: county municipal work.
Speaker 2: That's reasonable. I think that's reasonable. Most of those folks
Speaker 2: police a fire cont strike.
Speaker 4: Right, No, but they I mean I don't remember when recently,
Speaker 4: but there have been sick outs and the blue flu
Speaker 4: and whatever else you call it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but that's a that's a little different than a
Speaker 2: complete strike. When you say to understood, dear, you know,
Speaker 2: if all of a sudden, we're going to you know,
Speaker 2: six six some people out. Anyway, Look, you make some
Speaker 2: nice counterpoints, Steve, and I appreciate you taking the time
Speaker 2: to call. Would love to get the head of the
Speaker 2: teachers Union some night. We've invited him to come on,
Speaker 2: but at the head of the Massachusetts Teachers Association, the MTA.
Speaker 2: But you know, they they're a very powerful institution and
Speaker 2: the politicians willing to take them on. So I think
Speaker 2: in in in, you know, in the absence of the politicians,
Speaker 2: someone has to and I'll accept that responsibility.
Speaker 4: One quick comment before you go.
Speaker 3: Yeah, if I were a teacher, and I couldn't be
Speaker 3: because I think I'd be in jail for either either
Speaker 3: for disciplining or standing up to a parent who's being unreasonable,
Speaker 3: I think i'd lose it. But if I was a teacher,
Speaker 3: I would be striking on working conditions, not necessarily salary
Speaker 3: or benefits.
Speaker 4: And that's a whole other topic.
Speaker 2: It is. Yeah, yeah, and we've gone ten minutes, so
Speaker 2: I've got a long time with you. I hope you
Speaker 2: feel yet a chance to raise your points fairly.
Speaker 4: And I thank you den have a great night you too.
Speaker 2: One line at six one, seven, two, five, four, ten thirty.
Speaker 2: Two lines at six one, seven, nine, three, one, ten thirty.
Speaker 2: I'm going to get to Kathy and Michael, and again,
Speaker 2: if you don't think this is an important time topic
Speaker 2: because you don't live in Beverly, Gloucester or Marblehead, you're
Speaker 2: dead wrong. This problem is going to come to a
Speaker 2: community near you unless you have some better statewide leadership
Speaker 2: and say that these teachers unions. Look, we're going to
Speaker 2: enforce it's illegal to strike. Okay, it's we're going to
Speaker 2: enforce that, just like it's illegal to speed in your car,
Speaker 2: it's illegal to run through stop signs. It's as simple
Speaker 2: as that. We'll be back on night Side right after this.
Speaker 1: Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World
Speaker 1: night Side Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2: Back to the phones, we go. Let me go to
Speaker 2: Kathy and Stone. Kathy, appreciate your patience. Thank you for
Speaker 2: holding through the news.
Speaker 4: Go right ahead, Hi, thank you.
Speaker 5: I just had a call because my daughter is a
Speaker 5: member of the school committee in a neighboring town and
Speaker 5: she just talks about the unions, how they are strictly
Speaker 5: for the teachers should be.
Speaker 2: I mean you know they represent the teachers. So but
Speaker 2: the question is who puts You got to have some control,
Speaker 2: and I think that that the laws in Massachusetts give.
Speaker 2: You know, it's illegal to strike, but what what what
Speaker 2: consequence is there? That's the problem. You know, they it's
Speaker 2: it's illegal for you to rob a bank. But you know, Kathy,
Speaker 2: if they said, well, if you give the money back,
Speaker 2: you'll be okay. You know, more people be robbing banks.
Speaker 5: Don't you think you're right? No, I agree with you,
Speaker 5: but she said, it's really one side and their their focus.
Speaker 5: But on the other hand, I agree with with your
Speaker 5: idea of negotiating during the summer months.
Speaker 2: It should be compulsory. You you have to negotiate, uh.
Speaker 2: And not only do you have to, you know, before
Speaker 2: the final year of the contract. You can spend some
Speaker 2: time in July and August. If you can reach an agreement, great.
Speaker 2: If you don't reach an agreement, UH, then you wait
Speaker 2: until the next July and August, and you have an
Speaker 2: arbitr there, you know some you know, mandatory negotiation, arbitration,
Speaker 2: whatever you however you want to call it. And at
Speaker 2: the end of the day there will be You'll be
Speaker 2: like maybe a former judge or someone like that who
Speaker 2: will say, Okay, the union's looking for seven percent, the
Speaker 2: town is offering two percent. We'll settle at four percent
Speaker 2: or whatever. You know, whatever that individual thinks it's fair.
Speaker 2: That's that's it. You have to have some finality that
Speaker 2: they're going to drag these teachers' unions into court tomorrow.
Speaker 2: They're going to tell them your strike's going on, and
Speaker 2: we're going to find you ten thousand dollars a day.
Speaker 2: The teachers union is going to laugh at the judges,
Speaker 2: you know, right, and they'll be like, you know, and
Speaker 2: that's the problem. You know, when public education in Massachusetts
Speaker 2: is so important, these kids only have what is it,
Speaker 2: twelve ye well, if you add kindergarten, they got thirteen
Speaker 2: years of one hundred and eighty days. And at that point,
Speaker 2: if they're not going on to college, that's it, you know,
Speaker 2: And you take away a couple of weeks of classroom opportunities,
Speaker 2: and you know, the kids are the losers here.
Speaker 5: I agree with you. And not only that you have
Speaker 5: a large days and a half days. Oh well, the
Speaker 5: kids don't get a total amount of days. They really don't.
Speaker 2: Oh I was stunned. I was stunded at the numbers
Speaker 2: of you know, they call them, you know, professional development
Speaker 2: days or whatever, and I don't know what that really means,
Speaker 2: but uh yeah, I mean it's a it's a job
Speaker 2: that runs September through June, so it's been a ten
Speaker 2: month job. Now there's there's a Christmas vacation, there's a
Speaker 2: there's the February vacation, there's the April vacation, so that
Speaker 2: in effect takes about a month away. So you know,
Speaker 2: it's that it's a good job. A lot of people
Speaker 2: want to be teachers. Nobody was drafted to be a teacher.
Speaker 2: They are the year because they view themselves as educators.
Speaker 2: Well educate you know, let let the labor unions negotiate.
Speaker 2: The labor union negotiate for you. But you've got to
Speaker 2: have some you got to have some some guardrails. You
Speaker 2: can't have what's going on in these three communities right now.
Speaker 2: Have you is your have you talked to your daughter
Speaker 2: about these three strikes and some of the other strikes
Speaker 2: we've had.
Speaker 5: Recently, Well, she disagrees, I mean, she disagrees with the
Speaker 5: strikes because she thinks that there is a limited amount
Speaker 5: of money. Also because it's likely repercussions. She talks about
Speaker 5: the strike in Newton and saying that eventually they they're
Speaker 5: talking about letting teachers go. So it's like this vicious
Speaker 5: circle because you need the teachers, but then the town
Speaker 5: can only absorb so much money. I mean, the very
Speaker 5: easy for these town people whoever's in charge, to say,
Speaker 5: almost just got a little bit more tax and more
Speaker 5: and more because if well it's like governments and they
Speaker 5: don't know the repercussions.
Speaker 2: Well they can't because because we have the Prop two
Speaker 2: and a half override. So in order to get an override,
Speaker 2: they have to they have to, you know, in order
Speaker 2: to have tax increases more than two and a half
Speaker 2: percent on the town levy, they they have to have
Speaker 2: an override. Thank god for two and a half percent.
Speaker 2: Thank god for the people who made sure that that
Speaker 2: that was codified in Massachusetts and spend that way for
Speaker 2: about forty forty four years now. And look, I wish
Speaker 2: they could pay every teacher a million dollars a year,
Speaker 2: but that's not realistic. I could say I wish I
Speaker 2: pay every teacher two million dollars a year, but it's
Speaker 2: not realistic.
Speaker 5: I have a lot of respect for teachers, but they
Speaker 5: do get the summers off. They work hard, and they
Speaker 5: really do, and there's a lot of paperwork, a lot
Speaker 5: of responsibility. They excuse they do, but they get the vacations,
Speaker 5: they get the sick days. And I have a friend
Speaker 5: who retired from Boston and she got a payout of
Speaker 5: about sixty thousand dollars just for sick days.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, there aren't many. There aren't many companies
Speaker 2: in the private sector where you can accumulate sick days
Speaker 2: that be paid for those sick days when you retire.
Speaker 2: That's crazy.
Speaker 5: You must be getting fifty thousand dollars a year at
Speaker 5: least every year for pension. You don't get that from
Speaker 5: many jobs either.
Speaker 2: No pensions. Pensions in the private sector went away about
Speaker 2: thirty years ago for the most part. So yeah, it's
Speaker 2: as simple as that. Kathy, thank you very much. Thank
Speaker 2: your daughter for what she does. And she's she's invited
Speaker 2: to call in any other night we pick up this subject.
Speaker 2: Thank you, Kathy, Thank you, Tim, Talk to you soon.
Speaker 2: Have a great night. Okay, I got I got wide
Speaker 2: open lines here. So it sounds to me like this
Speaker 2: is a subject people really aren't interested in and a
Speaker 2: I'll tell you what I feel. This is such an
Speaker 2: important subject. I'm not going to give up on it.
Speaker 2: I am going to go to news. I'm going to
Speaker 2: tell you that I have lines at six one, seven, two, five,
Speaker 2: four to ten thirty and lines at six one, seven, nine, three, one,
Speaker 2: ten thirty. And if you don't think that this is
Speaker 2: a critical issue for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, I think
Speaker 2: you're mistaken. So far, no one from the Teachers' Union
Speaker 2: or the teachers has disagreed with me. I think there
Speaker 2: has to be as a result of these strikes, there
Speaker 2: has to be a brand new look. And I'm giving
Speaker 2: you the proposal. I don't think anyone else has suggested this. Basically,
Speaker 2: as I said, negotiations would have to start the summer
Speaker 2: before the contract expires. You can have ten sessions, you
Speaker 2: can have thirty sessions. But if you do not wrap
Speaker 2: it up the summer before the contract expires, then you
Speaker 2: have compulsory arbitration, mediation, whatever you want to call. Maybe
Speaker 2: you have former judges, former superintendents, former educators, maybe you
Speaker 2: have You can have a committee of three people, but
Speaker 2: they have to come to a decision. If the union
Speaker 2: and the town of the city doesn't reach an agreement,
Speaker 2: then it has to be settled, has to be settled,
Speaker 2: and that's the only way you can avoid teacher strikes.
Speaker 2: Teacher strikes in Massachusetts are absolutely illegal. Okay. They they're
Speaker 2: on strike tomorrow in Marblehead, they're on strike in Beverly,
Speaker 2: and they're on strike in Gloucester. And so they will
Speaker 2: be thousands of kids tomorrow who will not be educated
Speaker 2: in those communities. Just another reason where Massachusetts is going
Speaker 2: down the tubes. If you disagree, bring it on. If
Speaker 2: you agree, I want to hear your voice, because guess what,
Speaker 2: you have politicians in Massachusetts who have no backbone, they
Speaker 2: have no spine. This is not a popular position. I
Speaker 2: know the teachers you need to be very upset with this.
Speaker 2: We've invited them to come on and discuss it. I
Speaker 2: suspect they won't, but I think it's in the interest
Speaker 2: of my audience and it's the interest of the Comwealth
Speaker 2: of Massachusetts that we bring some balance to this. Six
Speaker 2: one seven, two, five four ten thirty six one seven
Speaker 2: nine three one ten thirty. This is not intellectually a
Speaker 2: challenging issue. Emotionally, it's a challenging issue, and I'm putting
Speaker 2: my position out and I want to hear yours agree
Speaker 2: or disagree. Coming back on Nightside.
Speaker 1: You're on the Night Side with Dan Ray on WBZ,
Speaker 1: Boston's news radio.
Speaker 6: Oh.
Speaker 2: In my audience has responded, and I appreciate it very much.
Speaker 2: You guys, never disappointment. We'll get to everyone. I promise.
Speaker 2: Let's get it going here. CG in Gabridge, CG, you're
Speaker 2: next on night Side. I don't care if you agree
Speaker 2: you disagree with me. I just want to make sure
Speaker 2: you're thinking, what do you think? CG.
Speaker 7: I agree with you partially. Uh, you're always up pretty
Speaker 7: well in tuned. What's going on. The one thing that
Speaker 7: my union did well, we couldn't get raises. It took
Speaker 7: us four years to get raises in the city. Was
Speaker 7: saying that we have to wait till the money comes
Speaker 7: in from the state and federal government. Well, we gave
Speaker 7: up that argument and we ended up hiring accountant and
Speaker 7: we did an audit of the school and of the city,
Speaker 7: and we found where they hid the money. All the
Speaker 7: money that was coming in from different fees and funds
Speaker 7: that came through the city went into what we ended
Speaker 7: up calling us slush funds. And there was millions of
Speaker 7: dollars there, and they said, oh, we have to save
Speaker 7: that for emergencies. Well, this is an emergency. We haven't
Speaker 7: had a raisin four years.
Speaker 2: Well, CG, that go to the table. Then yeah, let
Speaker 2: me just say this, CJ. That was what a good
Speaker 2: union does. A good union did the work. They felt
Speaker 2: that something was being kept from them, and I assumed
Speaker 2: that hopefully you got your your rais and then some.
Speaker 2: But again, I don't know what you did for the city.
Speaker 2: But you weren't a police officer, you weren't a firefighter,
Speaker 2: and you weren't a teacher. Because police officer, firefighters, and
Speaker 2: teachers can't strike.
Speaker 4: It's a legal but they can.
Speaker 7: They can before workouts and after workouts. They can go
Speaker 7: out on to the streets and let the people know
Speaker 7: what's happening.
Speaker 2: They could, well, sure they can, surely can. They can
Speaker 2: write letters to the editor, they can pick it. They
Speaker 2: can demonstrate. But if you're at home and and something's
Speaker 2: wrong in your house and you smell smoke, and you
Speaker 2: call the fight department and they say, gee, the guys
Speaker 2: are on strike tonight. Sorry, well we might be able
Speaker 2: to send someone home. They can't. You can't live like that.
Speaker 2: That's or you know, if all of a sudden someone's
Speaker 2: breaking through your front door, you call nine to one one.
Speaker 2: I don't know if you heard, but there's a police strike.
Speaker 2: Got to kind of handle the situation yourself.
Speaker 7: Can't do it, No, you can handle it another way
Speaker 7: by showing demonstrations before and have to work out well.
Speaker 2: Sure, and I'm just suggesting my my proposal is that
Speaker 2: the year before the contract expires, So the summer before
Speaker 2: the contract is going to expire June thirtieth, right that
Speaker 2: first summer, Uh, you still got a year left in
Speaker 2: the contract. You have a sit down, you have meetings,
Speaker 2: and you see if you can work it out. Then
Speaker 2: if you don't work it out and the contract expires
Speaker 2: the following June, then you have meetings and you have
Speaker 2: binding arbitration, and you basically have a list of our
Speaker 2: you know, mediators whatever you want to call them, arbiters,
Speaker 2: former judges, people who are who will be fair, and
Speaker 2: they'll listen to both sides and they'll say, okay, this
Speaker 2: is what they say. This they try to bring you
Speaker 2: to agreement. If they can't, they're gonna say, if you're
Speaker 2: gonna stay it, you want seven percent and you're only
Speaker 2: going to offer one percent. I'm gonna make a decision,
Speaker 2: and they make it decision and they say it's a
Speaker 2: final decision. You're going to get four and a half
Speaker 2: percent or whatever. And if the union acts more reasonably,
Speaker 2: let the arportrator the mediator be more you know, considered
Speaker 2: of the city of town. Or conversely, I mean if
Speaker 2: in a situation where the teachers haven't had strikes, haven't
Speaker 2: had raised in some time, they should be compensated more.
Speaker 2: I want to make it fair. It's not fair as
Speaker 2: it is now. Kids are held hostage and they're used
Speaker 2: as pawns.
Speaker 7: In my opinion, no, I go along with that fact.
Speaker 7: But I still think you have to force the administration
Speaker 7: to the table.
Speaker 2: That's how you force them. I just gave you the
Speaker 2: way they're forced to sit with the agree with you
Speaker 2: the year before, and then they're forced to get into
Speaker 2: good faith negotiation in July and August because we're going
Speaker 2: to have a contract. I'm judged so and so or whatever.
Speaker 2: We will have a contract and it's and and the
Speaker 2: courts would uphold the contract. And then the union would say,
Speaker 2: you know, we have some leverage, but we can't overplay
Speaker 2: our hand. We can't going and look for twenty percent,
Speaker 2: you know, bring some rationality to it. But you have
Speaker 2: no politicians in leadership in this state that are willing
Speaker 2: to adopt that position. So what's happened is going to
Speaker 2: be town after town after town is going to have
Speaker 2: teacher strikes. We've already had some. We got three going
Speaker 2: on right now. CJ has always I appreciate your time.
Speaker 4: Thank you, very good, Thank you, thank you.
Speaker 2: May talk to you soon. Let me go next to
Speaker 2: Mike and nowell Mike, you were next on nightside, Go
Speaker 2: right ahead. Okay, let's put Mike on hold because he
Speaker 2: wasn't ready, but that's okay. When he comes back on Rob,
Speaker 2: please let him know that he has to be ready.
Speaker 2: In the meantime, we'll go to Stephen Bridgewater. Steve, you
Speaker 2: are next one. Nice, I go right ahead.
Speaker 4: How you knowing? Dan out there? Nice? Talking you again,
Speaker 4: right back at you. I agree with you because you
Speaker 4: make a very good point. It's going to become contagious
Speaker 4: kind of where one town's going to say, oh look,
Speaker 4: other town's doing it, do it too?
Speaker 2: Why not?
Speaker 4: And it's going to one town after the other is
Speaker 4: going to do it and kind of think they can
Speaker 4: get away with it. I agree, using the students's pawns,
Speaker 4: and they're missing out on school days of weeks of
Speaker 4: school because of labor disputes, So I agree, you can.
Speaker 8: If you know that you can't.
Speaker 2: Yeah, if you know the geography of Massachusetts, you got Beverly, Marblehead,
Speaker 2: and Glosster. Those are three communities pretty close to each other.
Speaker 2: Go right ahead, I interrupted you. I apologize, Go ahead, No,
Speaker 2: that's okay.
Speaker 4: Other thing is you can tell them you're not going
Speaker 4: to have a job, But I wouldn't put them put
Speaker 4: someone threatened jail that I wouldn't threaten jail then, but
Speaker 4: I would say, look, if you don't go back to work,
Speaker 4: you're not going to have a job.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that I would. I would if it.
Speaker 2: The only time that you threaten jail would be if
Speaker 2: the union would then say the union leadership would say, well,
Speaker 2: well we don't agree. We entered into binding arbitration, it
Speaker 2: didn't work out to our advantage, and now we're going
Speaker 2: to strike the proposal that I have. You have to
Speaker 2: negotiate the summer prior to when the contract expires. You
Speaker 2: got to engage in positions. And then after the contract
Speaker 2: expires on June thirtieth, which they all do on June thirtieth,
Speaker 2: then you got two much you got July in August,
Speaker 2: your union leader is gonna sit with the school committee,
Speaker 2: and at some point when you're reaching in pass incomes
Speaker 2: the arbitrator, incomes the mediator. He or she listens to
Speaker 2: both sides, They make a decision, contract is signed, sealed,
Speaker 2: and delivered by you know, no later than September. First
Speaker 2: school resumes. There's no strike. It's as simple as that.
Speaker 2: Find me one politician who's going to advocate for that.
Speaker 2: You've got a bunch of politicians who do not have
Speaker 2: the courage to take on the teachers union.
Speaker 4: Right, Yeah, Well, I agree with you, Dan, someone's going
Speaker 4: to have to going to have to do it or else,
Speaker 4: like you said, it's going to get out of control.
Speaker 2: You got it, Steve, great, great call, quickly to the point.
Speaker 2: Thank you, my friend, appreciate it.
Speaker 4: Thank you.
Speaker 2: Damn about Let me go back to Mike here and
Speaker 2: see if Mike's ready. Mike, I hope you're ready this time.
Speaker 2: Go right ahead, Mike, Yeah.
Speaker 4: I'm here.
Speaker 9: No, I agree with well. I was afraid this is
Speaker 9: gonna happen because then Andover and Newton stroke strike then
Speaker 9: set a precedent. And now like when I saw that
Speaker 9: Marblehead got on board along with Beverly, and what are
Speaker 9: their power numbers? Now that like, isn't it a coinstance
Speaker 9: that they all got together and strike?
Speaker 2: Oh, I don't think it's a coincidence. If you look
Speaker 2: at a map and you see where Beverly, Gloucester and
Speaker 2: Marblehead are located.
Speaker 9: Yeah, what do you mean you don't think it's a coincidence.
Speaker 2: I don't think it's They're in the same neck of
Speaker 2: the woods, are up in the north northeast corner of Massachusetts.
Speaker 2: And I'm sure that the energy is feeding off one
Speaker 2: or the other. That's all, you know.
Speaker 9: That's all the saying, yes, I agree, Now do Andover
Speaker 9: Newton set a president and this is why they think
Speaker 9: they can strike.
Speaker 2: I think I believe that, Yes I do.
Speaker 9: I know, I agree, and I agree with you A
Speaker 9: year and to look at the try to get them
Speaker 9: to the table a year prior to the contract inspiring. However,
Speaker 9: why didn't that work in something around those lives work
Speaker 9: in Newton when they said they were bargaining for sixteen months.
Speaker 2: Well, it's one thing to say you're going to bargain
Speaker 2: for sixteen months. It's something else if you say, look
Speaker 2: the year before the summer, before the contract expires, you
Speaker 2: have to have some good faith negotiations. You have to
Speaker 2: have negotiations. If you don't reach an agreement, the negotiations
Speaker 2: stop during the school year. You can't strike during the
Speaker 2: school year. And then when the contract expires that next
Speaker 2: year thirtieth, you got to meet and you're going to
Speaker 2: meet in the presence of a negotiator, of a mediator,
Speaker 2: of an arbiter, whatever you want to call it, and
Speaker 2: that person will have an agreement like a referee or
Speaker 2: an umpire to say, Okay, they weren't able to come
Speaker 2: to an agreement, these are the issues outstanding. I'm gonna
Speaker 2: rule this way on this and this way on this,
Speaker 2: and that's that's end. That's final, that's the contract.
Speaker 9: Yeah, and one last place, pres Kristy And you know
Speaker 9: he ran for uh was it president?
Speaker 2: Like, yeah, I used the former governor of New Jersey,
Speaker 2: Chris Christy.
Speaker 9: Yep, go ahead, Yeah, he's teaches unions about eight years
Speaker 9: ago the exact you know, because the power of these
Speaker 9: unions and he took them on and know like he's
Speaker 9: just saying no, no, Massachusetts has a political role to
Speaker 9: take them on.
Speaker 2: You got it, You got it, Mike. Thank you very much,
Speaker 2: appreciate your call. Keep calling the show. Thank you, sir.
Speaker 3: Yep, have a great night.
Speaker 2: We'll be right back with Michael and Daniel uh and
Speaker 2: we're gonna wrap this up by eleven. But if you
Speaker 2: want to jump on, I can maybe Fitch in six.
Speaker 1: Now be live from the Window World night Sight Studios.
Speaker 1: I'BZ News Radio.
Speaker 2: By the way, at the beginning of next hour, right
Speaker 2: after the eleven o'clock news, we're going to announce the
Speaker 2: winner of our electoral vote contest. You might remember that
Speaker 2: on Friday, excuse me, not Friday night, Monday night, November fourth,
Speaker 2: would have been a week ago. Tonight, in the eleven
Speaker 2: o'clock hour, we asked people to tell us who was
Speaker 2: going to win the election tomorrow, meaning last Tuesday, and
Speaker 2: we asked them to tell us the winner and also
Speaker 2: the electoral count. And we have a winner. I will
Speaker 2: explain who that winner is right after eleven o'clock news.
Speaker 2: In the meantime, back to our phone call, it's going
Speaker 2: to go to Daniel in the great state of West Virginia. Hey, Daniel, welcome,
Speaker 2: how are you tonight?
Speaker 10: Good evening, Dan, I just wanted to comment on tonight's topic. Sure,
Speaker 10: you know you're talking about Okay, these teachers in Massachusetts
Speaker 10: are making ninety one hundred thousand dollars or more in
Speaker 10: some cases.
Speaker 2: Yes, absolutely, that is pretty close to the average salary
Speaker 2: here in Massachusetts.
Speaker 10: Yes, do you know what the average teacher pay is
Speaker 10: in West Virginia?
Speaker 2: Thirty five forty sixty fifty thousand.
Speaker 4: Dollars, mid thirties.
Speaker 10: Mid thirties is the mid thirties is the average starting
Speaker 10: salary With some of the teachers that have, you know,
Speaker 10: a few years of seniority, they might get into the
Speaker 10: fifties if you're lucky.
Speaker 2: Yeah. No, I understand, of course, the standard of living
Speaker 2: in West Virginia at the cost of living is a
Speaker 2: little less than Massachusetts. But where a state that has
Speaker 2: smiled upon teachers' unions, and teachers' unions have pushed as
Speaker 2: hard as they can, which is their job, but the
Speaker 2: state has not pushed back against and said, hey, look,
Speaker 2: you know, the union comes in with a lot of
Speaker 2: money behind them. They're going into some of these small
Speaker 2: towns here in Massachusetts and they're rolling, you know. And
Speaker 2: finally there are now some school committees that are sitting
Speaker 2: that's standing up against them, and we need the politicians
Speaker 2: to back up. Can can teachers strike? Are they allowed
Speaker 2: to strike in in West Virginia or no?
Speaker 10: They have struck in the in the past, there have
Speaker 10: been teacher strikes.
Speaker 2: And are they allowed to do that or are they
Speaker 2: held in contempt of court for doing that?
Speaker 10: They are not held in contempt.
Speaker 2: Even with the ability to strike, they haven't gotten they
Speaker 2: haven't They're not doing as well as their brothers and
Speaker 2: sisters at Massachusetts.
Speaker 10: Wow, right, you know West Virginia X fifty. I think,
Speaker 10: well they you know, you don't.
Speaker 2: Want to rank fifty if that's for sure, And I
Speaker 2: think they deserve more than that in West Virginia. And
Speaker 2: if I was a talk show host in West Virginia,
Speaker 2: I'd be advocating. I think they balance the scales are
Speaker 2: too far in favor of the union's here. Look, I'm
Speaker 2: a union member, Okay, I believe in unions, but you
Speaker 2: got to understand when I'm when my union we're going
Speaker 2: up against the ownership of iHeartMedia or when I was
Speaker 2: in a union at WBZ TV, we were going up
Speaker 2: against CBS. Uh. Those are big corporate companies. They're going
Speaker 2: up against the parents of the kids they're teaching here
Speaker 2: in Massachusetts, and the it's it's it's unfair. So Daniel,
Speaker 2: it's nice to find out by perspective what's going on.
Speaker 2: Have you called before and no, it's.
Speaker 10: Been a it's been a while since I've listened to
Speaker 10: your show off and on in the past, but it
Speaker 10: has been a while, but I have called.
Speaker 2: Come on back more often.
Speaker 4: Okay, all right, Well, thank you sir.
Speaker 2: I appreciate it very much. Thanks Daniel.
Speaker 4: All right, all right, great night.
Speaker 2: Okay, A last college just dropped off here. So if
Speaker 2: if someone wants to express an opinion, pretty quickly dialing
Speaker 2: right now six one seven, two five four ten thirty.
Speaker 2: If that person lost contact, you were up next six
Speaker 2: one seven, two five four ten thirty. We'll try to
Speaker 2: get you in here real quickly. We have talked now
Speaker 2: for two hours about these teacher strikes in Massachusetts. There
Speaker 2: are three going on in Massachusetts and again in the
Speaker 2: communities of Beverly, Gloucester and Marblehead. They are three communities
Speaker 2: that are fairly close. They're up in the northeast corner
Speaker 2: of the state. Uh, and we would Uh, let's let's
Speaker 2: get me one real quickly here, Robin. I'll try to
Speaker 2: get to both of these folks, and let me go
Speaker 2: to Mike and Beverly. Okay, and Mike and Beverly welcome
Speaker 2: you and next on nightside, first call from Beverly tonight.
Speaker 2: Go ahead, Mike, get you right in. Go ahead.
Speaker 8: I'm Mike, and Beverly can hear me, but I can
Speaker 8: hear you.
Speaker 2: Great, what's going on?
Speaker 8: No mind, I wanted to get in before the break
Speaker 8: over the game and get me.
Speaker 2: On, and I got you on. You're on the air,
Speaker 2: go right ahead.
Speaker 8: Oh Dan, oh that was first.
Speaker 4: Sorry about that.
Speaker 8: Yeah, go ahead, No, I'll listening quickly. I support the teachers.
Speaker 8: I live in Beverly and m ckanhille had not run
Speaker 8: the city correctly, and that's why the money had not
Speaker 8: funded for them. They had a chance to re elect
Speaker 8: a new administration with Toah November and then the city
Speaker 8: not do that. You know, Yeah, the city belly is
Speaker 8: just not one correctly.
Speaker 7: He spent money, believe so.
Speaker 11: You're supporting the teacher, Okay, all right, I got you,
Speaker 11: Thank you much, Karen, and Hopkins and Karen are going
Speaker 11: to give you about thirty seconds.
Speaker 2: I got you in here, go right ahead.
Speaker 6: Yes, I do not support the teacher I feel that
Speaker 6: the teachers strike is not correct.
Speaker 4: It's not right.
Speaker 6: And uh, if they don't like the job, just quit
Speaker 6: and find another job. And I think that I will.
Speaker 6: Why wouldn't they ask to get the parents in wolf
Speaker 6: and and just show everybody what the pays are, what
Speaker 6: the benefits are, and then get the parents and the
Speaker 6: two vols.
Speaker 2: Well, that's the that's not the way. What happens is
Speaker 2: that they negotiate with the school committee. And I think
Speaker 2: that the teachers' unions it's illegal for teachers union to strike.
Speaker 2: And if if you're not going to enforce the law
Speaker 2: against teachers unions, why have a wall like that? You
Speaker 2: know what I'm saying?
Speaker 6: I mean they Yeah.
Speaker 2: I'm with you, Karen, Karen. I wish you had called earlier,
Speaker 2: but I'm right up against the eleven o'clock news. You
Speaker 2: call anytime. Yeah.
Speaker 6: I tried. I drive and I find and then I
Speaker 6: listened to it's very interesting. But I will call again.
Speaker 6: Am out of time. Thank you?
Speaker 2: Is this your first time calling.
Speaker 9: Yes, yes, we'll give.
Speaker 2: You a quick round of applause here from our digital
Speaker 2: studio audience. Well, we'll look forward to your next call. Thanks, Karen,
Speaker 2: appreciate it very much.
Speaker 6: Okay, all right, okay, when we get back.
Speaker 2: We are going to announce the winner of our electoral college,
Speaker 2: who will contest from a week ago. We will we
Speaker 2: will will disclose that person to you if you actually
Speaker 2: took a guest, you want to be listening carefully. And
Speaker 2: then we're going to talk about the democrats dilemma. What
Speaker 2: did they do now? How does the party pick itself
Speaker 2: up off the mat? Because the Democrats are going to
Speaker 2: find themselves. They've lost the White House, they've lost the Senate,
Speaker 2: and they're probably going to lose the House. I'm going
Speaker 2: to check on those numbers during this news break