Woburn schools closed Monday as teachers go on strike

WOBURN, Mass — There will be no school in Woburn Monday as teachers plan to strike.

Dozens of teachers and families rallied Sunday night in Woburn after teachers did not reach a deal with the city on their contracts after negotiating for eight hours.

The Woburn Teachers Association says they’re pushing for better pay, smaller class sizes, and more gym time for students, among several other demands.

“It is sad and we’re not celebrating this, it’s something we had to do because we cannot continue to have our ESPs continued to be paid these types of wages,” said Barbara Locke, president of the Woburn Teachers Association.

Mayor Scott Galvin says they offered teachers a more than 10% raise over three years, but the union was pushing for 14.75%, which he says isn’t possible under the school budget or for taxpayers.

“It all comes down to tomorrow, the kids are going to be inconvenienced, the parents are going to be inconvenienced and for the teachers to say they have no other options, it’s outrageous,” said Mayor Galvin.

After no deal, all teachers plan to go on strike Monday, forcing schools to close for the day.

“Their illegal strike is not going to be used as a bargaining chip and they’re not going to use it to hijack negotiations,” said Mayor Galvin.

Locke says one of their biggest concerns is increasing pay for paraprofessionals, who make about $21,000 a year.

“We’re not trying to be millionaires, we’re just trying to make a livable wage so we can feed our families and especially our ESPs – such a darn shame,” said Locke.

Mayor Galvin says they usually negotiate the salaries of paraprofessionals separately.

“Today out of the blue they thought we would negotiate with both groups at the same time, which we haven’t done over the past year,” said Galvin. “We understand it’s very difficult for paraprofessionals, their wages are low and it’s time to bring them up and we’ve talked about that, and we are more than willing to bring their wages up.”

The mayor says since going on strike is illegal in Massachusetts, they’ll be going to court Monday to file an injunction to order teachers back in the classroom.

Meanwhile, negotiations will continue Monday morning at 9:30 while teachers will be picketing outside of their schools.

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