Brookline Educators Authorize Strike With No Contract In Sight

BROOKLINE, MA — The members of the Brookline Educators Union (BEU) voted Thursday evening to authorize a strike to begin Monday, May 16 if the Brookline School Committee and the BEU bargaining team fail to reach an agreement this weekend.

The BEU is currently in its 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.

"Brookline educators have been working for nearly three years without a contract that addresses fair and reasonable compensation as well as working conditions that meet the realities of a modern, comprehensive education,” the BEU said. "We have been patient. We have been bargaining in good faith. The Brookline Educators Union has never walked away from the bargaining table, contrary to what the School Committee claims."

"Educators are simply fed up with the Brookline School Committee’s approach to bargaining – or rather its active avoidance of serious bargaining.”

According to BEU educators, assertions about lower student enrollment are “distractions” and the union said the needs of students are greater than ever.

"We will always fight for what our students need and deserve,” the union said.