| Dear Member,
Happy Summer! We hope that the school year ended well for you, and that you are able to take some time over the next two months to enjoy with your family, engage in professional development, work summer school or ESY, and generally recharge your batteries in advance of the next school year! If you’re looking to stay politically active this summer, then sign up to phone bank or join the BTU Electoral Action Team (BEAT) for chances to support local candidates. The BTU e-Bulletin will move to a summer schedule, and publish every two weeks during the summer months.
Heat Wave & Back Pay
Many of our schools were extremely hot on Monday. The BTU advocated to have staff in the 11 BPS schools without air conditioning, and in schools where the AC is broken, to have their professional development moved online after student dismissal so teachers did not have to continue to work in classrooms that were extremely oppressive. For instance, according to the BPS Indoor Air Quality Dashboard, just after noon on Monday, multiple classrooms at the Murphy School were over 89 degrees, room 304 at the Mather was 99 degrees, and room 315 at the Hennigan was 88 degrees.
The unbearable heat that our students are too often forced to learn in, and that our members are required to work in, can be dangerous to working people. BTU President Erik Berg will be joining a panel of AFT leaders to testify before OSHA on Thursday regarding proposed regulations around heat in the workplace. The BTU, AFT and other AFL-CIO unions are advocating for the Trump administration to keep in place the regulations developed by the Biden administration.
Regarding retroactive paychecks, the district has continued to say that they cannot operationalize back pay during the summer and that BTU members will not see back pay until September. We have filed a grievance against the district and filed an unfair labor practice charge with the Massachusetts Department of Labor Relations for undue delay in providing employees overdue retroactice pay. We will continue to advocate for all members to receive their retroactive paychecks immediately.
AFT MA Lobby Day & BTU History: June 25th
This Wednesday, June 25, the BTU is participating in two important events: AFT MA Lobby Day and the BTU Digitizing Day! From 9:30am to 12pm, educators, activists, and parents will be at the Massachusetts State House to speak with legislators and advocate for the passage of bills which secure increased funding for our schools and support workers rights. People of all ages are welcome and organizers will provide training on how to best advocate for your interests. Let us know if you can make it!
Once you’re done on Beacon Hill at noon, head to the BTU at 1pm! In partnership with UMass Boston, the BTU is continuing to document the history of our union and Boston Public Schools.
From 1-4pm, BTU members can bring in primary documents such as protest flyers, newspaper articles, pamphlets, and photos to the BTU Hall so they may be scanned into a digital database. We will also be conducting interviews with current and retired educators. This year we are focusing on three areas: the history of desegregation in BPS, the history of school closures, and the history of special education in the district. Please register ahead of time to reserve an interview slot. If you don’t want to be interviewed but still contribute to the project, please bring any primary records related to those issues so they can be preserved in the archive. You will keep the original copies!
The BTU and UMass Boston first partnered in 2018, and those documents and interviews are now permanently archived at UMass Boston and online. This archive is a valuable resource for study as well as a document of history as experienced by BTU members since the union’s inception in 1945. Now you can contribute! |
