City teachers hold picket over ongoing impasse
WOONSOCKET – With no apparent movement toward a settlement of a new contract with the city, members of the Woonsocket Teachers Guild were out again with their picket signs at the Hamlet Middle School Thursday letting Woonsocket residents know they are still working despite the impasse.
The demonstration was held after school under sunny skies but also in temperatures hovering around 25 degrees and in a steady breeze.
Several other picketing sessions have been held since the teachers and paraprofessionals’ past contract expired in August.
High school teacher Tony Cosentino said the picket line was formed along Hamlet Avenue “just to make people aware of the financial problems we are facing here in Woonsocket and to try to get people to mobilize to get the state, to get the communities to all find ways to pitch in and create the best possible education system for our kids.”
The weather was cold on Thursday, he added, “but it’s worth it.”
Christine Parker, a teacher at the Globe Park Elementary School, said it was the ongoing contract dispute that drew the Guild members into the cold.
“We’re still without a contract here in Woonsocket for our teachers and our paraprofessionals so all of our staff needs closure on that. We’re here to let the public know that settlement has not settled,” she said.
A fellow Globe Park teacher, Pauline Cournoyer, voiced a similar view.
“We’re still working without a contract and teachers need to be recognized for the hard work they do in Woonsocket because they really do a lot of work for the city,” she said.
“We’re trying to get the message out to all the parents in Woonsocket to support the teachers, and they really deserve it because they really work hard for the kids in the schools,” Cournoyer added.