MTA launches website on history of educator strikes
MTA launches website on history of educator strikes
The Massachusetts Teachers Association has launched an interactive website on the history of 56 strikes by MTA local associations from 1969 through 2024. The timeline, released on April 29, includes brief narratives about each strike and links to additional resources and photographs. Collectively, the narratives tell a story about an important aspect of Massachusetts’ labor history.
In 1965, a new law gave municipal employees the right to bargain collectively over wages, hours and terms of employment, but it explicitly prohibited them from striking. Two years later, the MTA backed a bill to legalize striking under certain circumstances, writing, “Why must teachers have the right to strike? The answer: To make irresponsible school committees responsible.” The bill did not pass, though strikes nonetheless began to occur, often leading to fines and sometimes even arrests.
A more comprehensive public employee collective bargaining law, called Chapter 150E, passed in 1973 and was updated in 1974. It continued to prohibit work stoppages.
Today, the MTA once again is supporting a bill to make public employee strikes legal under some circumstances, as they are in 13 states. MTA President Max Page explained, “MTA members and other public employees are at a disadvantage at the bargaining table because they do not have the legal leverage to withhold labor if a fair contract cannot be negotiated in a timely manner.”
He continued, “Strengthening unions is more important than ever now that they are under assault from the Trump administration. Unions need the right to strike as a core part of their power to win fair contracts, to stand up for members’ rights and to improve conditions in public schools and public higher education.”
The new timeline provides information about each strike by an MTA preK-12 local, starting with a nine-day strike in New Bedford in 1969 caused in large part by “deep resentment” of the poor conditions in the schools, including chronic shortages of classrooms and supplies.
The following year, four leaders of the Woburn Teachers Association were the first in the state to be jailed for striking. They spent one night in jail, anxiously wondering what was going to happen to them. Susan Brennan, co-secretary of the WTA, wrote in a journal she kept while imprisoned, “Jails are stupid. They could keep me here for a couple of months, I suppose. But I don’t think I’d stop believing what I did was right.”
Arrests and sanctions became harsher over time, peaking in 1977, when about 100 Franklin teachers were arrested and 73 jailed, some sent as far away as Pittsfield after the local jails became full.
Joe Ferrari, a spokesman for the local, told the MTA at that time, “The strike was not settled by the jailing of teachers. It was not settled by fines. It was not settled by the courts. It was settled through good faith negotiation.”
Strike activity rose sharply in the 1980s after the approval of Proposition 2 ½, which slashed local property tax revenues and led to educator layoffs, school closures and threatened pay cuts. In 1987 alone there were 10 strikes.
Strike activity diminished significantly after 1995, when new state aid allocated under the Education Reform Act finally began flowing to local communities.
Since 2019, strike activity has escalated. Dedham educators struck that year over concerns about pay, students’ use of cell phones in schools and the district’s sexual harassment policy. The next two strikes — in Brookline and Andover — were related to health and safety issues during the pandemic.
The three most recent strikes were in Gloucester, Beverly and Marblehead in November 2024. Key issues in those and other recent strikes included a living wage for Education Support Professionals, paid parental leave and addressing students’ mental health challenges.
This interactive timeline was created by the MTA History Project, an MTA-funded initiative to tell stories from the organization's past, from its founding in 1845 to the present. The timeline includes information on full-day strikes and partial work stoppages by locals affiliated with the MTA, but does not include actions by affiliates of AFT Massachusetts.