Arlington Teachers Picket over Contract Dispute

Over a hundred teachers and union members formed a picket line outside Arlington High School on Thursday afternoon to raise awareness about the teacher’s union two-year contract battle with the town. Drivers honked and residents jumped into the caravan as members of the Arlington Education Association (AEA) marched up and down Mass Ave.

“We’ve been reasonable,” said AEA President Ron Colosi.  “But at the end of this school year, it will be two years without a contract. We simply can’t work in that kind of environment.”

The teachers’ last contract expired in August of 2009, and since then the teachers have been working under a verbal agreement to follow the terms of the old contract.

The Arlington School District operates on a 12-step pay scale, which corresponds to a teacher’s education level and experience in the district. Once teachers reach the twelfth step on the pay scale, they must negotiate for salary increases with new contracts; at this stage percentage increases are no longer imputed in their contracts.

This means that the 150 teachers on the 12th step—Arlington’s most experienced educators—have not received a salary increase since 2009. Without a raise to compensate for increasing expenses, namely health care costs, these employees have actually taken pay cuts for the past two school years.

AEA’s Crisis Committee Chair Dave Blakley explained that without a new contract, some teachers will be forced to leave the district.

“We love Arlington and we love our schools, but some people are ready to say enough is enough and go to other towns for better paying jobs,” he said. “If Arlington doesn’t take action and get the teachers get a contract soon, we’re going to lose a lot of great people.”

Blakely, who is also a former president of the AEA, said that this is the longest span the teachers have gone without a contract in the union’s history.

“We’re trying to be as non-confrontational as possible. We want to stay here and work in town,” said Blakely. “But we also want to show that we can mobilize if needed.”

Among those who stopped to join the picket line was Maris Sparks, an out of work teacher who lives in Arlington and substitutes sporadically in Belmont.

“It takes something like this for people to realize the seriousness of it,” she said.

The AEA rejected the town’s contract in November of last year, as did many other unions in Arlington. The AEA is still in negotiation with the town over health care, benefits and other issues. Due to collective bargaining restrictions, Colosi could not reveal the specifics of these negotiations, but he did say the AEA has been assigned a state mediator to assist at the bargaining table.

“We’re hoping to come up with something that will benefit the town and also not be detrimental to the employees,” said Colosi. 

The AEA will meet with Town Manager Brian Sullivan on April 6 to continue negotiations.