Looking Back: Mount Markham Teachers

By J.N. Cheney

For unions, contract disputes aren’t a foreign concept.

Mount Markham Central School District has had its own share of disputes surrounding contracts for teachers and non-teaching faculty alike at various points in its history.

In the mid-1980s, the Mount Markham Teachers Association and the School Board were involved in a dispute that sparked, arguably, the first ever genuine teachers strike in Mount Markham’s history.

Contract negotiations between the teachers and the district began in February 1985.

Even from the beginning, it was evident that the Mount Markham Teachers Association’s fight for a fair contract would be a marathon rather than a quick sprint.

Come June of that year, it was reported that there were four unions in total that had not reached contract agreements with the district, causing an impasse in their negotiations, including the MMTA.

Said contracts were due to expire July 1, less than a week later than when these impasses began.

Other unions on the brink of working without a contract to this point included the Bus Drivers Union, the Service Union Association of Mount Markham, and the Building Administrators Union.

Of the four unions facing an impasse, only the bus drivers were close to an agreement with the School Board at this point in time.

Come July, the Bus Drivers reached an agreement on a three-year contract. It would take until late-August to early-September for the SUAMM and the BAU to reach their own agreements with the district.

As school was starting (perhaps it had already started for the year), the only union contract left to finalize was for the MMTA.

Though negotiations had likely felt tedious by this time, there remained an aura of optimism surrounding talks between the district and the teachers and the potential of reaching a settlement.

Whether or not this optimism was misguided will be seen soon enough. Similarly to other disputes, a fact-finder was introduced to help this battle reach a sufficient conclusion.

After two weeks of investigation, the fact-finder suggested a compromise on the issue of wages.

The teachers asked for a 14% raise, while the district offered a 7.5% raise. The fact-finder suggested an increase of 8%.

This proposal though was not sufficient for the MMTA.

A meeting was held between the two parties Nov. 5, 1985, but at this point the teachers were beginning to indulge in measures outside of these meetings.

Before the meeting on that day, some of the union members engaged in a picket outside of the Middle School.

In addition, just a few days earlier, the union made the decree that they would begin to practice that some today call “quiet quitting” (which, frankly, isn’t a real thing).

Introduced as “work to rule,” the union officially stated that until a conclusive deal was reached with the district, they would only do ...