Teachers in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., have won back the right to hold selective strikes under a state appellate court’s ruling.
The district had sought a court injunction to prevent the practice after members of the Wilkes-Barre Education Association, an affiliate of the National Education Association, held sporadic walkouts in November and December of 1984, during a contract dispute.
The strikes ranged from 10 minutes to one day, and resulted, in several cases, in the closing of schools.
The Commonwealth Court, in a 4-to-3 decision this month, ruled that intermittent walkouts by teachers do not jeopardize the health, safety, and welfare of the public.
The action overturned a decision by the Common Pleas Court of Luzerne County that had barred the practice since 1985.
The school board voted last week to appeal the decision, according to Leo Solomon, the district’s superintendent of schools.
Mr. Solomon said that selective striking is not a “fair type’’ of strike because it results in children’s being left unattended at their schools.
