On October 25, 2019, Dedham teachers went on a one-day strike—the first strike in Massachusetts in over a decade—in violation of state law which prohibits public employees from striking. M.G.L. c. 150E § 9(a). (“No public employee or employee organization shall engage in a strike, and no public employee or employee organization shall induce, encourage or condone any strike, work stoppage, slowdown or withholding of services by such public employees.”). The unlawful strike, which forced Dedham public schools to cancel classes, was a tactic by the union to pressure the Dedham School Committee to agree on a successor contract after two years of negotiations. The DLR had already instituted fact-finding and the parties had selected a fact-finder and picked hearing dates (October 3 and November 19, 2019), but the Union cancelled the first fact-finding hearing.
On October 23, 2019, the Dedham School Committee filed a Petition for Strike Investigation with the Commonwealth Employment Relations Board (CERB) claiming that an illegal strike was about to occur. On October 24, 2019, the CERB found ample evidence that the union violated the law by encouraging a strike and issued an order directing it to cease and desist from engaging or threating to engage in a strike. Nonetheless, the teachers went on strike the next day. The DLR filed a civil complaint asking a judge to enforce its order, and on Friday a Norfolk Superior Court judge ordered the union to “cease and desist any and all unlawful striking activity.” The parties reached a tentative new contract that weekend. A copy of the CERB’s decision is available here.
