Lansing Teachers Stymied By New Mich. Strike Law
While Lansing, Mich., teachers work toward a contract, a new state strike law requires them to continue teaching without one.
The law, effective for the 1995-96 school year, docks teachers one day’s pay for each day they boycott school.
As a result, the 1,420 Lansing teachers have begun the school year as usual even though the union has not finished negotiating a contract. Some teachers, though, have stopped participating in after-school and lunch-hour activities, said Judy Brown, a spokeswoman for the Lansing school district.
Arnoldo Martinez, the local director for the Lansing Schools Education Association, said the teachers were “frustrated and angry” with the school board for proposing new contract requirements, such as a dress code and a residency requirement.
In other strike activity around the country last week, teachers in eastern Pennsylvania’s Spring Ford district continued a strike that began Sept. 11. The 275 teachers complained that their salaries are the lowest in Montgomery County in suburban Philadelphia.
The 174 teachers in the Steubenville, Ohio, district reached a contract settlement on Sept. 18, one day before teachers were to strike.
