IN WHAT’S BECOMING a familiar pattern, some of the loudest voices of support among political leaders for striking teachers are again coming from officials who are far removed from day-to-day oversight of the schools or state policy governing teachers’ strikes, which are illegal under current law.
A year ago, as state teachers unions began ramping up an effort to remove the state prohibition on public employee strikes, the state’s two US senators, Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey, and Congresswoman Katherine Clark – all progressive Democrats – were offering support for walkouts in Malden and Woburn, both in Clark’s district. But the union effort was getting a very different reception at the State House, where Beacon Hill’s big three Democratic power brokers, Gov. Maura Healey, Speaker Ron Mariano, and Senate President Karen Spilka, all declared their opposition to legislation that would legalize teachers’ strikes in the state.
Fast forward to the walkout of Newton teachers that began on Friday and the state’s congressional delegation is again speaking out. But this time it comes with an added twist: Along with support from Warren and Markey, the striking teachers have received strong backing from left-leaning Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley, whose district doesn’t include Newton.
“Our educators are on the front lines – pouring into our students, contributing to our communities, and strengthening our democracy – and they deserve a contract that reflects both the value of their labor and their humanity,” Pressley said in a statement released on Friday. “I urge Mayor Fuller and the Newton School Committee to immediately come to the table, invest in our educators, and fully fund the schools Newton deserves.”
Congressman Jake Auchincloss, a more moderate Democrat who represents and lives in Newton, has not weighed in on the strike. Newton’s State House delegation – Sen. Cynthia Creem and Reps. Ruth Balser, Kay Khan, and John Lawn – has also stayed out of the mix. The Newton Beacon reported last week that 22 of the 24 Newton city councilors signed on to a letter opposing the walkout.
Newton officials and the teachers union are at odds over everything from salaries and health care contributions to the union’s call for more social workers in elementary and middle schools. The union insists the city can afford its contract demands. In a statement issued last night, Newton Mayor Ruthanne Fuller said it cannot, and cited the disruption of the illegal walkout to families, including lost pay for those who can’t work from home or find childcare.
Paul Reville, a former state education secretary who now teaches at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, commented a year ago on the emerging divide that saw members of the congressional delegation voice support for teachers’ strikes while state leaders were opposed. “The farther away you are from the consequences of endorsing a policy, it’s easier to make that endorsement,” he said.
Reville nonetheless expressed sympathy for the weak negotiating position teachers are in without a right to strike, and said a sensible “middle course” might be to establish a framework for binding arbitration to settle protracted contract disputes.
As for her decision to support a municipal workers’ strike in a neighboring district, Pressley’s office said she has spoken out on behalf of union causes across the state and country, including those of striking nurses in Worcester, hospitality workers in South Boston, and Harvard graduate students – all outside her district.
“Congresswoman Pressley has consistently supported workers in Massachusetts and across the country, including our educators, as they organize for better wages, benefits, and contracts that value their work and their humanity,” said spokesman Ricardo Sánchez in a statement. “These fights are intersectional and transcend communities, and the Congresswoman’s support for Newton educators—some of whom are her constituents—is no exception.”
