Salem Teachers Seek 'Dramatic' Pay Increases In New Deal

SALEM, MA — Salem educators are seeking what their union calls "dramatic wage increases for all workers" as part of the compensation proposals exchanged at the latest bargaining session with the School Committee on Monday night.

Salem Teachers Union representative Elaine Cronin Bombaci said in a social media update on Monday night that the city's educators are "dramatically underpaid — among the very lowest paid on the North Shore."

"This causes high turnover among Salem educators," Bombaci said.

The Salem Teachers Union Local 1258 said on its website that it is seeking "significantly increased teacher salaries," "a living wage for paraprofessionals and other support staff," and "pay which accurately reflects credentials of all educators."

"It has always been the School Committee and superintendent's objective to pay our educators a competitive wage," the School Committee said in a statement on Tuesday. "This gets us one step closer to making that happen."

One logistical disagreement on Monday was surrounding the size of the negotiating room when the STU made plans to bring along 160 silent observers as part of its negotiating team. The STU said the negotiation agreements allow them to bring as many members of the team as they want but efforts to find a room big enough to accommodate nearly 200 people were not successful.

"Historically, the negotiations between the School Committee and SPS collective bargaining units take place in School Committee chambers," the district statement said. "When establishing ground rules for the current STU negotiations both teams agreed the silent observers are welcome to attend all meetings and that the meeting venue must accommodate all members of the bargaining teams.

"The bargaining team for STU includes 18 members and the School Committee team includes nine. School Committee chambers accommodate all members of both bargaining teams as well as over 30 silent observers at one time."

The district said when the STU informed it that many more members than that would be attending on May 9 School Committee member Manny Cruz met with the union members and "developed a plan to provide overflow space silent observers as well as the technology necessary for the observers to follow proceedings."

An STU spokesperson said that while the accommodations still failed to meet the ground rules established, they were able to rotate the observers so that they were all able to view portions of the negotiating session.

Other proposals presented to the STU on Monday included those addressing course loads, sick time incentives and clarifying roles and stipends for department heads, head teachers and ILTs.

The next negotiating sessions are set for May 29 and June 17.

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at [email protected]. X/Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)