Press release from Canton Teachers Association

By Guest

After more than a year of negotiations and 4 months working under an expired contract, The Canton Teachers Association (CTA) Negotiations Team met with the Canton School Committee’s Negotiations Team for their first mediation session on Tuesday, December 20th. Despite the bitter cold, the steps to the Rodman Building, the walkway to the parking lot, and the sidewalk along Washington Street were lined with hundreds of Canton educators and community supporters in the hour leading up to the meeting.

At the conclusion of the mediation session, the Canton Teachers Association Negotiations Team, representing the union’s 399 members, voted unanimously to authorize a work-to-rule job action.

“It became clear during the course of the evening that in order to protect against the reduction of benefits, to ensure Canton’s ability to attract and retain highly qualified educators, and to ensure every educator in Canton is earning a competitive wage, this action was a difficult but necessary next step. Unfortunately, the School Committee’s proposals have not given us the sense that they share in our desire to settle a contract that benefits both students and educators,” said CTA President Lauren Mahan. “We are advocating for the continuation of longstanding contract language which sets Canton apart from other communities. At this time, educators are in high demand. Eliminating highly regarded benefits that make educators want to come to and remain in Canton is not good for our students. Recruitment and retention of talented educators should be at the forefront of the School Committee’s vision. We can’t settle a contract that will ultimately hurt Canton’s students, and that’s why we have made the decision to take this next step”

Canton currently has an available budget for salaries in FY23 of $3.3 million, on top of all expended and encumbered funds according to the FY23 Q1 Financial Report presented at the September 30 School Committee meeting. Educators are asking for pay increases comparable to surrounding towns using only some of that available money that has already been budgeted. “Canton educators deserve a contract that respects the work we do every day and that supports us as we support Canton’s students. The School Committee so far has refused to settle a contract that does that, even though they have the resources to do so. That hurts.” said CTA Vice President Sarah Joncas.

The basic tenet of Work-to-Rule is that teachers will complete only contractually required or customary work inherent to their position. This includes not engaging in certain work-related activities outside of the required contractual hours. For some students and parents/guardians this will present a major change to what has become common-place. The majority of educators who had been participating on committees for which they are not compensated will no longer attend. Emails, phone calls and texts from parents to educators will go unanswered until the next school day. At the secondary level, Work-to-Rule will be very noticeable. Unless in a stipend position, educators will leave the building at the end of the contractual work day. No longer will educators volunteer to remain after school to help students or supervise test retakes. Field trips that teachers previously attended that extend beyond the contractual work day will not take place. Saturday competitions for clubs in which educators volunteer their time will not be attended by a CTA member.

Educators perform countless hours of above and beyond work purely out of their commitment to students and the schools of Canton. Canton’s educators understand how difficult this is going to be on students, families, and educators themselves, particularly at the secondary level. The CTA urges the School Committee to take the necessary steps to bring an end to this job action: respect Canton’s educators and settle a fair contract. Canton educators want nothing more than to support students as they always have. What they see as more harmful to Canton students than this job action, however, is not settling long-term fair contracts for our educators.

A long-time Canton educator who wishes to remain anonymous added, “We want to be able to go back to focusing all of our attention and passion on our students. However, we cannot do that until we are shown respect by the School Committee for our professionalism and dedication.This means agreeing to a livable wage for our Education Support Professionals, withdrawing proposals that aim to reduce educator benefits, and agreeing to proposals that will help Canton attract and retain highly qualified educators in this staffing crisis.”

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