Hostility Intensifies as Teachers Resume Strike in Buffalo

By Julie Blair

Contract negotiations grew increasingly hostile in Buffalo, N.Y., last week, while in Philadelphia, teachers began working without a contract for the first time in 35 years.

District officials filed charges Sept. 14 against Buffalo Teachers Union President Philip Rumore, who had called a walkout in a state where such practices are illegal. In addition, Mr. Rumore was held in contempt of court for violating a judge's order not to strike. No hearing date for his arraignment had been set as of late last week.

The union, in turn, is filing charges against the district on the grounds that it violated negotiating procedures—the...