Andover teachers union votes to go on strike Friday

Educators in Andover will go on strike on Friday morning in hopes of securing a new contract that provides better pay for instructional aides and teachers, along with paid family and medical leave, among other issues.

Members of the Andover Education Association voted to authorize the strike on Thursday, citing a lack of progress made in 28 bargaining sessions that stretched over nine months with the town’s school committee, the union said in a statement.

“We have reached a breaking point where we will no longer tolerate the School Committee’s disrespect for us and disregard for our proposals. We appreciate the community’s support and are eager to settle this contract as quickly as possible,” the statement said.

Andover schools were set to open on Friday, unlike other districts across the state that will be closed in observance of Veterans Day. Schools in Andover will now be closed on Friday and for the duration of the strike, Tracey Spruce, chair of the Andover School Committee, said in a statement.

The School Committee will provide students with boxed breakfasts and lunches to be picked up at Bancroft Elementary School. Breakfast can be picked up between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m. and lunch between 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Athletics and theater rehearsals will continue, Spruce said.

The union plans to picket Friday at 8:30 a.m. at each of the district’s 10 public schools and will continue at noon on the town common, the statement said.

The strike is the second time since 2020 that Andover educators have engaged in a labor action. As the district prepared to reopen for a hybrid school year amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the union advised its members not to enter school buildings, citing unsafe working conditions, the Globe reported.

A state labor board later ruled the union had participated in an illegal strike.

Teachers union strikes are illegal in Massachusetts. But that has not stopped unions in a number of school districts to go on strike in the last year, including Brookline, Haverhill, Malden, and Woburn.

On Thursday evening, the Malden Education Association issued a statement on behalf of 23 teachers unions backing Andover’s planned strike saying “educators deserve a fair contract and competitive pay instead of being told to do more for less.”

Along with better wages, Andover educators are seeking protections for class prep time, longer lunch and recess for the district’s youngest learners, and more say in curriculum decisions, the union’s statement said.

Spruce said the School Committee has filed a petition with the Department of Labor Relations to stop the strike.

“We are incredibly disappointed in this decision by the AEA to take this illegal action that unfairly disrupts the education of our students,” Spruce said.

“The school committee bargaining teams have negotiated in good faith to reach contracts that are fair to all educators and staff and we urge the union bargaining team to immediately come back to the negotiating table and work with us in good faith to reach agreement,” Spruce said.