Brookline Educators Union Declares 'Work To Rule' Mid-Negotiation

BROOKLINE, MA — The Brookline Educators Union has declared a “Work to Rule” action, meaning they will do no more than the minimum required by their current contract, in response to ongoing negations with the Brookline School Committee for the next round of three-year contracts.

This motion comes after the district requested the help of a state mediator from the Department of Labor Relations last month following ten bargaining sessions with the BEU.

"We are saddened that the BEU has rejected mediation, has pressured the community to pressure us to abandon mediation, and has taken actions that will harm Brookline students – both through reduced teacher-student interactions and by provoking stress and anxiety in students and caregivers,” said the Brookline School Committee in a statement Friday.

In response to the petition for mediation, BEU President Jessica Wender-Shubow sent a letter to Director of the Department of Labor Relations Philip Roberts on Nov. 24, arguing that the School Committee’s request was premature and there was already significant movement from the initial negotiating positions.

“We do not believe the parties are deadlocked, nor do we believe there has been enough time to negotiate since all the proposals have been put on the table,” wrote Wender-Shubow. “The Committee’s impetus for abandoning the bargaining table simply does not meet the definition of impasse.”

“The parties should return to the bargaining table to resume negotiations in good faith,” she continued.

In September, the BEU started the third year in a row without a current contract for approximately 850 educators .In March 2020 when schools closed due to the pandemic, the union and School Committee agreed to a 1.5% salary increase for the year as a stopgap measure, but it left many other questions unresolved.

Several outstanding issues between the BEU and the School Committee include finances, with the district claiming they do not have the funds to agree to the union’s demands on the salary or to make new hires, and disagreement on what belongs on the contracts, including language on retaining more teachers of color.

“What we get are two statements, 'you cost too much or we don’t have the money' and 'whatever you want doesn’t belong in a collective bargaining contract,’ said Wender-Shubow. “And that is not enough creative work."

“What this comes down to is mediators are not educators, period,” she continued. "They cannot be the solution to the question of what community schools should look like. We need the BEU, the School Committee, and the Select Board all working together.”

The BEU said they will be meeting with Select Board Vice Chair Raul Fernandez this week to discuss the negotiations.