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The Woburn Teachers' Association announced on Friday, Jan. 27 that the organization had voted to authorize a strike starting Monday, Jan. 30, unless a tentative agreement was reached between the organization and the school committee and mayor, according to the union's Facebook page.
The association has demanded smaller class sizes, that students take physical education classes twice a week, and that teachers be compensated for all workdays, among other proposals. 99% of Woburn educators voted to authorize the strike that pushes for these changes.
“We do not take our decision to strike lightly, and believe that we have exhausted all other options," said Barbara Locke, president of the Woburn Teacher's Association. "In fact, there is no other path forward. We implore Mayor Scott Galvin and the school committee to help us complete construction of a contract reflecting the quality of Woburn Public Schools and its educators.”
The school committee and the mayor called the vote to strike "illegal, disruptive, and unnecessary," according to a joint statement released the same day the vote was announced.
Massachusetts public workers are indeed prohibited from striking, although teachers have organized strikes in the past, including teachers from Haverhill who announced a strike in November 2022.
Haverhill teachers later received a $50,000 fine for the strike, according to NBC Boston.
After hearing of the union's plans to vote on a strike, the school committee filed a petition with the Department of Labor Relations on Tuesday, Jan. 24 to investigate the strike.
“The latest proposal made by the Committee on Jan. 18 is a fair and highly competitive offer that allows for reduced class sizes, additional collaborative professional development, increased instructional time for students, and a generous wage increase that is in addition to the step increases that approximately 50% of our staff received at the start of this school year," the joint statement from the school committee and mayor said. "The WTA has yet to meet with the Committee to respond to this proposal even though the Committee proposed multiple times to meet this past week. We are currently looking to schedule a meeting with the WTA this Sunday morning."
A tentative agreement was previously reached in October 2022, according to the statement, but it was not ratified by the teachers' union.
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