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By Sarah Plutnicki
FITCHBURG – After months of negotiating, the final contract between Fitchburg Public Schools (FPS) and the Fitchburg Education Association (FEA) was finally approved by the district school committee and union members on January 6, 2025. Fitchburg public school teachers, paraprofessionals, custodians and clerical staff collectively won a new contract agreement that ensures access to higher wages and paid parental leave for all four units, among other benefits.
One significant win for the FEA union was a new combined sick leave “bank,” where teachers, paraprofessionals and custodial staff can all pull sick hours into the same “bank” for extended illness or parental leave. Prior to the new contract, staffers were not able to use this bank for parental leave. The contract also won paid lunches for the clerical unit which, according to the FEA, was a very important improvement for them – prior to this contract, clerical staff were to take lunch at the end of the day rather than during the normal work day. Additionally, the union won two additional paid holidays per year for paraprofessionals.
Organizing Tactics and Points of Contention
For the Fitchburg Educators Association, changing their organizing tactics was essential to winning a more fair contract for educators and school staffers.
One of the biggest changes that was made by the FEA and the school district was that all four units — teachers, paraprofessionals, custodians, and clerical staff— bargained together instead of bargaining separately. The idea was to “increase the amount of pressure on the district using strength in numbers during the collective bargaining process, as well as to decrease the amount of time spent bargaining,” said Maggie Goodgion from the FEA.
During previous contract negotiation cycles, according to Hanson and Goodgion, the teachers’ contract would be negotiated first, followed by the paraprofessionals, then custodians, then clerical staff. Historically, this method of bargaining would draw out the collective bargaining process for many extra months, and tended to lead to less effective organizing due to workers across job classifications not being united: “..There wasn’t a lot of transparency before within the union… It took a lot of educating of members and education about the negotiating process.”
One of the biggest changes that was made by the FEA and the school district was that all four units — teachers, paraprofessionals, custodians, and clerical staff— bargained together instead of bargaining separately.
This latest round of bargaining was the creation of the Contract Action Team (CAT). In a model which has been replicated across many other Massachusetts Teachers Association locals, the FEA CAT was responsible for planning the open bargaining process, allowing union members to provide feedback on the negotiation process as negotiations were happening in real time, and turning out as ‘silent reps’ to negotiations with the district. The CAT model is similar to the traditional shop-steward model, but focused on the specific contract fight rather than being open-ended. The model relies on much of the organizing theory popularized by the late organizer Jane McAlevey, utilizing one-on-one organizing conversations and ‘structure tests’ to build deep member engagement which can be tapped into as a campaign escalates.
According to Hanson and Goodgion, who are both part of the CAT, the team “held as many one on one conversations in each building as they could, tried having a strong social media presence, [went] out into the community and [talked] to community members,” acting as a transistor for union member and community feedback, and “then the team would incorporate any feedback” into future demands. The CAT also planned community events to further educate members of the public with childcare services and food provided to turn out more parents and students.
One of the more contentious issues throughout the bargaining process was the district’s proposal to extend the school day by 30 minutes. Generally, school district staff and community members were not supportive of this proposal – many parents mentioned during public events and one-on-ones that extending the school day would be too much of a mental strain on the kids attending school. In addition to a strain on students, the extra time would also increase the teachers’ workday. According to Hanson, “twice a month for an hour after school, teachers stay for extra prep – it’s functional time that doesn’t impact students or the rest of the staff.”
The school district also attempted to remove language from the final contract regarding safe behaviors of students, another contentious issue, but the FEA eventually strengthened the final contract language surrounding this issue.
Overall, the CAT built strong community support through active and consistent community engagement throughout the bargaining process, which can likely be attributed to the union’s coordinated organizing efforts.
Looking forward
The Fitchburg Educators Association expressed to Working Mass that they would be interested in re-opening discussions with the school district regarding special education caseload caps, and higher wage increases during the next round of negotiations in 2027.
The union’s victory is just one example of the resurgence of the U.S. labor movement in recent years, and shows that better working conditions are always possible through coordinated, organized labor action by the working class.
Sarah Plutnicki is a member of Metro DC DSA.
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