Thank you to all of our members who signed the postcards last week and thank you to all of the Building Reps who helped to collect them. Thousands of postcards were mailed. Please help us to share our message on Facebook and Twitter. If you didn’t get a chance to fill one out, please see your Building Rep. You can bring them back to the office to be mailed, or place a stamp on the card.
As we break for the summer, it is important to make it very clear that the issues we are fighting for are not just issues that a few of our members care about, they are important to all of our members. We have heard from so many educators who personally know an excellent, experienced teacher who has been excessed due to budget cuts, turnaround or school closure, and firing them without any cause is not something that our members will agree to.
These are not “bad teachers” in a “rubber room” — they are overwhelmingly proficient and exemplary teachers who have served and continue to serve the students of Boston with great skill and commitment, often for decades. Our students deserve qualified, experienced teachers, and our veteran teachers deserve respect—not to be pushed out due to budget cuts.
We also continue to fight for improvements to inclusion staffing and support, pay equity, and a number of other issues that will improve the teaching and learning conditions for our students. Despite a 10-month wage freeze and over 16 months of negtiations, we will continue to fight for a contract our students and educators deserve.