Massachusetts

Massachusetts Teachers Are Continuing a Wildcat Strike Wave

Published

2 years ago

January 14, 2024

Massachusetts Teachers Are Continuing a Wildcat Strike Wave

A wildly successful, illegal three-day strike by the Andover Education Association (AEA) in November has reverberated statewide for educators in Massachusetts.

The lowest-paid instructional assistants got a 60 percent wage jump immediately. Classroom aides on the higher end of the scale got a 37 percent increase.

Members won paid family medical leave, an extra personal day, fewer staff meetings, and the extension of lunch and recess times for elementary students.

Andover is twenty miles north of Boston, and the strike involved ten schools.

For ten months and twenty-seven bargaining sessions, the Andover School Committee had insisted that none of these demands were possible. But by the end of the first day of the strike, they had ceded many items. By day three, they agreed to almost all of the union’s demands.

Public-school workers can’t legally strike in Massachusetts — but Andover’s is just one of a series of school unions that have struck over the last four years, defying the ban, and in some cases paying heavy fines as a result.

The Massachusetts Teachers Association is pushing for legislation that would legalize public sector strikes after six months of bargaining.

The wins at Andover come after years of building rank-and-file power and democracy within the AEA.

When President Matt Bach and his slate won leadership in 2019, they startled the district by refusing to meet privately with the superintendent, insisting that all meetings would include at least one member.

The new leaders opened up union meetings and budgets. They shared union budget details, including that coffers had been significantly depleted by leadership travel to conferences. They encouraged discussion of critical issues, and the union started organizing building by building.

The first big fight was at South Elementary School, where a bullying principal was targeting teachers. The new union leaders sent out a survey about the school climate, but the recently deposed union leaders alleged that those asking for the survey were themselves the bullies.

Siding with the former union leaders, the district began an investigation and interviewed dozens of teachers. Instead of being intimidated, members got angry and organized a rally to call out the bullying. Under this pressure, the principal and the head of human resources were removed by the superintendent.

In the return to work midpandemic, AEA members refused to enter the school buildings for a professional development day until their safety could be assured. Instead, they set up lawn chairs and their computers outside.

This action was deemed a strike by the state. The members were unprepared for an actual strike, so they returned to the buildings the next day. However, the action secured them a new air filtration system and helped lead to the resignation of the superintendent.

When the district received American Rescue Plan Act funds in the midst of the pandemic, AEA insisted that some of those funds be used to pay bonuses to the lowest-paid workers in the district, including cafeteria and other workers not in the union. The district balked, so the union worked with the community to bring the question to the Andover town meeting, which in some towns in Massachusetts is the town’s governing body. The goal: let the residents decide if they wanted to use the funds as bonuses.

School lawyers insisted that the motion was illegal, and the issue was between the union and the district. At the town meeting, though, the community voted to support the motion as an advisory decision. (The district reopened negotiations, and the issue remains unsettled.)

Each of these actions added a layer of educators ready to take on the district during contract negotiations. But not everyone was convinced.

Kate Carlton, a special education teacher at Doherty Middle School, told me she kept the union at arm’s length because of negative past experiences with unions.

She said she didn’t believe the dire reports sent by Bach during the pandemic negotiations: “The language in his emails, I was like, no way. This is charged language, opinionated words. It cannot be that bad.”

Carlton started to attend negotiations to see for herself. “I heard and saw the way our town talked about teachers and what we do,” she said. “I was watching them and thinking, your child uses special ed! Your child uses special ed and you don’t respect what educators do? Feeling the ugliness. Then they speak out of the other side of their mouths and write these emails about how much they value us.”

Dan Donovan, a fifteen-year science teacher, was reluctant at first to join the strike vote — but changed his mind after he, too, witnessed negotiations. “It was informative to see how our side wanted to discuss and reason and go through things and we were just talking to a stone wall,” said Donovan. “When the School Committee sends out a press release or an email, they say one thing, but when you go to the bargaining session it is clear what is really going on.”

The School Committee resisted having union members in the room during bargaining — and the room could not hold the one hundred to two hundred members who wanted to attend each time.

While the union could have filed an unfair labor practice charge alleging that the district was not allowing the union to choose its own bargaining team and not meeting in a mutually agreed-upon space, it took an organizing approach instead.

Fifty members sat in the room as negotiations took place. Then the union would call a caucus and meet with those members and more who were in the auditorium next door. After discussion, a new group of fifty members would return, and negotiations would continue. Every time the union called a caucus, new members swapped in.

After one session when the School Committee objected to this swapping, members got more fired up than ever. Bach said enthusiasm was so great, “it was like ‘The Price is Right.’ People were rushing to be the ones to get in the room.”

What moved members to strike? Everyone I spoke to said members witnessing bargaining was central, but what made the most difference was listening.

Carlton identified members in her building who she knew had had issues with the union in the past. “I just say, ‘Hey, can I talk to you?’ I’m not going to tell them what to do. I am going to listen.”

Beth Arnold, a high-school math teacher who was on the bargaining team, said the creation of communication teams of ten members to one leader in the high school allowed people to engage in more conversations with each other, to hear from voices other than “the loudest,” and not rely just on emails or the word of the leadership.

When she talked with members about the illegality of the strike and their fears, Arnold emphasized that the choice to strike was a shared decision — not one to make alone.

The strike wave among Massachusetts educators started in April 2019 with the Dedham Teachers Association. It was the first teachers strike in Massachusetts since 2007.

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court has ruled that even using the word “strike” constitutes “inducing, encouraging or condoning a work stoppage by public employees.” Union leaders who do so risk fines — personally and as elected leaders — and even jail time.

The Dedham educators voted to strike on a Thursday, were out one day, and had a tentative agreement in time to return to work Monday. They faced minimal fines.

The Brookline Educators Union struck in May 2022. They were out one day and were willing to pay a $50,000 fine imposed by the school district on the union.

The wave built with Haverhill, Malden, Woburn, and now Andover. Melrose Teacher Association members authorized a strike, but won all they demanded before they could walk out.

Some unions faced fines of up to $50,000 a day; others did not. In Woburn the community held a bake sale to help pay the fine. Some people paid $100 a cookie.

Educators in Massachusetts are not only seeing each other strike and win, but also teaching each others how to do it.

Barry Davis, president of the Haverhill Teachers Association, which struck in October 2022, says the lessons were first forged in the Merrimack Valley bargaining council, an informal network of six teacher locals that meet regularly to share contract issues and organizing strategies. After the Haverhill and Malden strikes, organizers from those locals reached out to or were contacted by members of other locals.

“We’d go out and talk to members in these locals, and they realized that we were just like them, that there was nothing different about us that made us able to strike,” Davis said. “When you are a third grade teacher with three kids, and a third grade teacher with three kids shows up to tell you how to do this, you realize much more is possible.”

AEA members have been transformed. “I don’t recognize these people,” said Bach shortly after the strike.

Originally Donovan said that he would do anything to support the union, except break the law. Now he says, “I’ve come around. Not all laws are just, and that is an unjust law. Teachers deserve the right to strike for just wages.”

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Massachusetts

Crews battle fire at Townsend home

Published

9 hours ago

March 1, 2026

Press Room

A fire broke out Sunday morning in Townsend, Massachusetts.

The Townsend Fire department said shortly before 7 a.m. that firefighters were on scene for a structure fire on Dudley Road.

People have been asked to avoid the area.

The Massachusetts Department of Fire Services said state police fire investigators assigned to the state fire marshal’s office are responding to assist the Townsend Fire Department.

There was no immediate word on any injuries, or any information on what caused the fire. It’s also unclear if the large snow piles in the area impeded access to fire hydrants, as was the case at the house explosion in Taunton last week.

This developing story will be updated when we learn more

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Massachusetts

Eight high school takeaways from the midst of the state tournaments, plus a new Attleboro football coach – The Boston Globe

Published

21 hours ago

March 1, 2026

Press Room

Eight high school takeaways from the midst of the state tournaments, plus a new Attleboro football coach – The Boston Globe

Throw in Newton North winning its first state gymnastics title in 54 years, two Natick runners (and one from Oliver Ames) capturing New England titles, a last-minute goal from St. John’s (Shrewsbury) boys’ hockey to eliminate BC High, and plenty of overtime thrillers, and you get an all-time action-packed day.

Find all the scores here, and take a moment to browse all of our coverage:

Not seeing your team’s highlights in Takeaways? Here are all the ways to submit scores and stats to Globe Schools via phone, email, and social media.

▪ With a deep 3-pointer in the first quarter of Greater New Bedford’s 68-43 win over Springfield International, junior Jai-Ana Silva became the program’s leading scorer, surpassing Stephanie Antoine’s 1,493 points, set in 2012. Silva finished with 31 points and now sits at 1,513. Earlier this season, she became the fourth female 1,000-point scorer in school history.

▪ With 30 points in a 90-68 win over Quincy, Beverly senior Jacob Klass surpassed Peter Wynne’s scoring mark of 1,351, set in 1981. Klass, who reached 1,000 earlier this season, has 1,371.

▪ Concord-Carlisle senior goalie Sam Griswold made 44 saves, including the 1,000th of his career, in a 2-1 win over Woburn.

▪ Hoosac Valley senior Qwanell Bradley joined the 1,000-point club on a 3-pointer during a 78-59 Division 5 first-round win over Pacific Rim Charter.

▪ A pair of Bulldogs reached 100 points in Canton’s 9-0 smackdown of Somerset Berkley. Senior defenseman Teddy Shuman got there with a goal and three assists, and senior center Joey Ryan also reached the mark with three helpers.

▪ Taunton junior Jamie Vallarelli matched the school’s points record, joining Jeff Gallagher (’94) with 139, by notching a goal and adding an assist on the overtime tally that kept the Tigers’ season alive with a 3-2 win over Middleborough.

The single-digit seeds are starting to fall.

Saturday saw the first three top-five seeded teams sent home, with No. 3 St. John’s Prep boys’ hockey getting taken down by No. 14 Arlington Catholic in Division 1 action — the highest seed sent home through the first five days of the tournament.

The highest-ranked team to be bounced from the Division 2 boys’ hockey bracket became No. 5 Woburn. It fell, 2-1, to No. 12 Concord-Carlisle, which got an incredible 44-save performance from senior Sam Griswold and goals from Ben Brooks and Joe Grasso.

Division 3 also saw a top-five falter, as No. 5 Pembroke was clipped by No. 13 Norwood, 3-1, in the second round. John Lynch, Anthony Parise, and Mark Trahon provided the goals.

Not to be left out, Division 4 boys’ hockey also saw a significant upset, with No. 23 Bourne riding Jackson Palmborg’s 26 saves to a 3-2 first-round win over No. 10 Hudson.

On the hardcourt, No. 24 Pembroke boys’ basketball didn’t mind a morning ferry ride to Martha’s Vineyard, taking down the ninth-seeded hosts, 65-50, behind Will Farrell’s 24 points.

▪ Seventh-grader Effie Parsons found the net with 31 seconds left in overtime as No. 2 St. Mary’s girls’ hockey escaped a strong upset attempt from No. 18 Winchester, which led, 2-1, before Alyssa Norden tied it up in the third period.

▪ Reading sophomore Payton Curran not only delivered the equalizer in the final minute of regulation, but provided the overtime winner to lift the Rockets to a 3-2 girls’ hockey win over Waltham.

▪ Nantucket’s Gaven Smith forced overtime against Swampscott with a 3-pointer with nine seconds left in regulation, but the fourth-seeded Big Blue rode 26 points from Connor Chiarello and 25 from Teddy O’Neill to a 67-61 win over the No. 29 Whalers.

▪ No. 25 Bishop Fenwick girls’ hockey nearly upset No. 8 Bishop Stang, which would have eliminated both of last year’s Division 1 finalists, but the Spartans survived, 1-0, on junior Alexis Pettinato’s overtime winner.

▪ Braden LaChance netted the overtime winner for Taunton, which survived Middleborough, 3-2, in the third matchup between the two programs in 12 days. The Tigers won, 4-1, on Feb. 16 at Aleixo Arena before Middleborough prevailed, 4-0, on Feb. 18 at Bridgewater Ice Arena.

▪ Nico Santella scored on a stick-side snipe with 42.2 seconds left to propel St. John’s (Shrewsbury) past BC High, 2-1, in a Division 1 second-round matchup of Catholic Conference rivals.

Cal Atherton, Newburyport — The senior erupted for 31 points, guiding the Clippers to a first-round win over the defending Division 2 champions, Somerset Berkley.

Allen Brown Jr., Holbrook — The senior poured in 32 points, the highest total reported to the Globe on Saturday, to lead the Bulldogs past Boston Prep, 66-45 and into the second round.

Amelia Crowe, Pentucket — Amelia Crowe caught fire from deep, draining eight 3-pointers en route to 27 points and a 40-33 first-round win over Seekonk.

Addy Harrington, Duxbury — The senior produced one of the night’s three hat tricks, scoring thrice in a 4-2 second-round win over Melrose.

Levi McNally, Barnstable — Just a sophomore, he netted a hat trick for the Red Hawks in a 5-2 first-round win over Minnechaug.

Cam Melone, Hanover — The senior went for 5 points, scoring twice and assisting thrice in a 6-1 second-round win over Lynnfield.

Georgia Murray, Bishop Feehan — The junior scored a natural hat trick in the first period and finished with four goals in a 6-2 second-round win over Acton-Boxborough.

Celia Neilson, Bishop Fenwick — The senior captain contributed across the board, providing 23 points, 6 rebounds, 6 assists, and 8 steals for the top-seeded Crusaders in a 58-27 waxing of Wilmington.

Jackie Pohl and Jenna Oman, East Bridgewater — Pohl, a sophomore, and Oman, a junior, were everywhere in a 63-39 first-round win over Bellingham. Pohl finished with 20 points, 7 rebounds, and 8 assists, and Oman had 15 points, 10 rebounds, 4 assists, and 3 steals.

Attleboro High has a new football coach. Lamont Penn, a Bridgewater-Raynham assistant under Eian Bain, will take over the Bombardiers. They went 3-8 last year under Jim Winters, who helmed the program for four seasons, going 14-30.

Penn served as Norwood’s offensive coordinator from 2018-21. He was introduced to the team Friday.

Providence junior Jon Mignacca, a Bishop Feehan graduate from Seekonk, won the Big East high jump championship, clearing 6 feet, 8.25 inches (2.04 meters) to beat out UConn’s Enaji Muhammad (6-7).

▪ UMass Dartmouth sophomore Ancil Alexander, a Taunton graduate, was named Little East Conference Field Athlete of the Year for men’s indoor track after taking second at the LEC Championships in the shot put (51 feet, 3.75 inches). He won the event three times during the season.

▪ UMass Dartmouth freshman Michael Veegh, a Bishop Stang graduate from Tiverton (R.I.), was named Little East Conference men’s indoor track Rookie of the Year. He won the 400 at the LEC Championships (50.54 seconds) and was part of the second-place 4×400 relay (3:28.67). He was also named All-LEC first team.

▪ Keene State junior Tyler Bolaske, a Palmer graduate, was tabbed as the Little East Conference’s male Track Athlete of the Year after leading the Owls to their first indoor championship since 2008. Bolaske won the mile at the LEC Championships in 4:11 and was runner-up in the 800 (1:59.25).

Georgia Murray, Bishop Feehan, 4

Addy Harrington, Duxbury, 3

Levi McNally, Barnstable, 3

Riley Bergeron, Acton-Boxborough, 2

Brayden Boczenowski, Arlington Catholic, 2

Cate Buckler, Barnstable, 2

Abigail Burke, Notre Dame (H), 2

Payton Curran, Reading, 2

Hannah D’Angelo, Pembroke, 2

Luke Dickson, Medfield, 2

Colman Donohue, Hingham, 2

Will Doucette, Canton, 2

Ryan Elrick, Canton, 2

Jack McCourt, Catholic Memorial, 2

Cam McKenna, Hingham, 2

Cam Melone, Hanover, 2

Joe Pumphret, Winthrop, 2

Nolan Russell, Arlington, 2

Sabrina Stone, Milton, 2

Ella Sullivan, Pembroke, 2

Connor Hines, Hanover, 3

Cam Melone, Hanover, 3

Joe Ryan, Canton, 3

Teddy Shuman, Canton, 3

Abigail Burke, Notre Dame (H), 2

Kellen Labanara, Canton, 2

Hunter McClain, Bourne, 2

Sam Griswold, Concord-Carlisle, 44

Stephen Camara, Arlington Catholic, 33

Jackson Palmborg, Bourne, 26

Jaxson Fleming, Catholic Memorial, 24

Jim Lyman, Winthrop, 22

Colin McCarthy, St. John’s Shrewsbury, 21

Lydia Barnes, Methuen/Tewksbury, 18

Dom Conte, BC High, 18

John Snider, Arlington, 15

Vivienne Melo, Bishop Stang, 14

8. Basketball leaderboard

Allen Brown, Holbrook, 32

Cal Atherton, Newburyport, 31

Jacob Klass, Beverly, 30

Elian Rodriguez, Salem, 30

Mike Berry, Cape Cod Academy, 28

Elian Rodriguez, Salem, 28

Tyler Staiti, Abington, 28

Amelia Crowe, Pentucket, 27

Jag Garces, West Bridgewater, 27

Connor Chiarello, Swampscott, 26

Sysy Emmanuel, St. Mary’s, 26

Dom Taylor, Somerset Berkley, 26

Michael Cimetti, Hull, 25

Grant Neal, Lynnfield, 25

Teddy O’Neill, Swampscott, 25

Will Farrell, Pembroke, 24

Logan Volkringer, Plymouth South, 24

Celia Neilson, Bishop Fenwick, 23

Julian Allison-Cardoso, Dedham, 22

Mateo Jackson, Bridgewater-Raynham, 22

Tori White, Canton, 22

Tori Adams, Walpole, 21

Liam Conneely, Hull, 20

Jackie Pohl, East Bridgewater, 20

Kingston Maxwell, Abington, 15

Krem Amparo, Latin Academy, 14

Mateo Jackson, Bridgewater-Raynham, 14

Bella Bingham, Walpole, 13

Sadie Hartley-Matteson, Old Rochester, 13

Devyn Walsh, Pentucket, 13

A’laya Colbert, North Quincy, 12

Zade Garron Ciberay, Plymouth South, 12

Mike Ekweanya, New Mission, 11

Chase Groothuis, Swampscott, 11

Teddy O’Neill, Swampscott, 11

Brooke Connor, Canton, 10

Jenna Oman, East Bridgewater, 10

Hannah Thorell, Old Rochester, 10

Jackie Pohl, East Bridgewater, 8

Kingston Maxwell, Abington, 7

Jacob Klass, Beverly, 6

Celia Neilson, Bishop Fenwick, 6

Luke Tirrell, Bridgewater-Raynham, 6

Sydney Bosma, Old Rochester, 5

Cason Faulk, Bridgewater-Raynham, 5

Manny Valentino, New Mission, 5

Grace Goudreau, Seekonk, 4

Sadie Hartley-Matteson, Old Rochester, 4

Celia Neilson, Bishop Fenwick, 8

Emma Farrell, East Bridgewater, 6

Connor Chiarello, Swampscott, 5

Sienna Miranda, Seekonk, 4

Brooke Connor, Canton, 3

Zade Garron Ciberay, Plymouth South, 3

Brendan Kurie can be reached at brendan.kurie@globe.com. Follow him on X @BrendanKurie.

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Massachusetts

20k customers without power in Revere, Winthrop areas

Published

1 day ago

February 28, 2026

Press Room

20k customers without power in Revere, Winthrop areas

National Grid is reporting that roughly 20,000 customers are without power due to outages in the Winthrop and Revere areas.

The utility company’s live outages map shows that 10,753 customers are without power in the Revere area and 9,261 customers are without power in the Winthrop area as of 2:25 p.m. Saturday.

The Herald has reached out to National Grid for comment. The Herald has also reached out to Eversource for information regarding any outages in their service regions, where a Herald photographer has seen some outages. Eversource’s outage map did not display any major outages at 2:25 p.m.

This is a developing story.

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