NORTHAMPTON — Amid stalled negotiations between the School Committee and the Northampton Association of School Employees, union members started working-to-rule — not working beyond their contractual obligations — last Monday.
Now, they allege that school administrators have interfered with work-to-rule. The union filed a charge of prohibited practice Wednesday with the Massachusetts Labor Relations Commission. The complaint states that the superintendent and a couple of principals have “engaged in a rampant pattern of interference in Union activity which has had a chilling effect on the Union’s activity.”
Superintendent John Provost told the Gazette Thursday that the district does not agree that practices were violated.
“While the district respects the union’s right to file a prohibited practice charge, we deny that there has been any prohibited practice,” he wrote in an email. “Beyond that, we choose not to comment publicly on potential litigation. If this process moves forward, we reserve our right to litigate it in the proper forum, which is the Department of Labor Relations.”
Specifically, the complaint states that Provost sent a letter home to parents saying that the teachers unit was working-to-rule but didn’t specify that the other five units — including educational support professionals and cafeteria workers — were also participating. The complaint alleges that the omission caused “confusion and disharmony among the other units.”
It also alleges that Provost told principals to change paraprofessional schedules and that, at Bridge Street School, Principal Beth Choquette held individual meetings with paraprofessionals to tell them their schedules would change and that “they are not participating in work to rule,” according to the complaint, which said that the meetings “intimidated members.” A phone message left Thursday for Choquette was not immediately returned.
The letter home and the individual meetings with paraprofessionals caused confusion among union members, said Sadie Cora, president of NASE.
“We told the members of the union that we were going into work-to-rule status, and then the district told members of the union that they were not and targeted specific units,” she told the Gazette Thursday. “Work-to-rule certainly has a big impact on teachers, but it was never the case that only teachers were doing it.”
Schedules can be changed, Cora said, but “it’s something that we believe needs to be bargained and not done unilaterally.”
The complaint also states that, at Northampton High School, some administrators who are included in the collective bargaining agreement were allegedly told not to come to a regular meeting for the administrative team, which the union claims was done in “direct retaliation” for announcing the work-to-rule.
A mediation session has been scheduled in response to stalled contract negotiations, according to Provost. “We are hopeful that mediation process, which will begin on June 12th, will help us move past this impasse,” he said.
Mayor David Narkewicz, who is the chairman of the School Committee, said he had no comments to add to Provost’s statement regarding the labor complaint.
Greta Jochem can be reached at gjochem@gazettenet.com.