DECATUR, Ill. (WAND) – The Decatur Federation of Teaching Assistants are taking to the picket line for the second day Wednesday.
Leaders are unhappy with the failure to come to a contract agreement with the Decatur Public School District.
DFTA members are picketing at various district schools. The day the strike started, Tuesday, protesters chanted, “What do we want? Fair contracts! When do we want it? Now!”
Tuesday night, the union told WAND News they have received no calls from any board member or any representative of the board regarding the next mediation session.
The union said the federal mediator did call them Tuesday morning to ask if the strike was going forward. They informed him it was.
No dates for negotiations were discussed.
The strike is a move DFTA members said they did not want to make, but had to do.
"I love my job, and I love working with the children that I work with," said teaching assistant Abi McIntosh. "And I hate that I'm here and not with them."
The strike comes as the union and the Decatur Public School Board failed to reach an agreement at their last meeting on Oct. 23. The union had previously voted to begin a strike on Oct. 29 if a deal was not reached. Negotiations had been going on for months.
"Negotiations haven't been going well and things got actually kind of combative," McIntosh said. "Not only have we had to say that we want a fair wage, but we've had to kind of prove our worth and show what we really do in a day for these kids."
The Decatur teaching assistants were also joined Tuesday by a few dozen supporters from Chicago.
"These folks want to be back in the classroom," said Dan Montgomery, President of the Illinois Federation of Teachers. "They know the kids. They love the kids, but they got to have a partner at the bargaining table."
DFTA President Paula Busboom previously told WAND-TV that health insurance coverage has been a major sticking point in the negotiations.
Busboom claims that DFTA members average a $20,000 salary but have been asked to pay $900 a month in health insurance. She says they're looking for more reasonable rates.
"How can you charge someone $900 a month for insurance and expect them to take home a $200 paycheck?" teaching assistant Stephanie Peck told WAND Tuesday. "Who could live on that?"
"I would still love my job and I would still love being with my kids, but I couldn't justify working to only bring home a few dollars an hour," McIntosh added. "We're not asking to be rich off this job. We just want a fair wage."
The Decatur Public School Board disputes the numbers offered by the union, and has said their T.A.'s are paid better than in other Central Illinois districts like Springfield and Champaign. During a Monday news conference, DPS Board Member Regan Lewis said the health insurance plan they've offered to T.A.s is the same plan that teachers and other district employees have been offered. Lewis and other DPS board members said they believe DFTA members would come out ahead with their insurance plan.
According to the DPS, 9 programs were suspended Tuesday as members of DFTA went on strike:
- Pershing PreK Programs - All PreK classes at Pershing, RCC, Baum, Oak Grove
- Parsons - All Life Skills classrooms
- Enterprise - Life Skills and hear impaired program students
- Muffley - Social/Emotional Development (SED) program
- Hope - Essential Skills program
- SEAP Program at Harris Elementary
- Stephen Decatur - SED, Life Skills, Essential Skills
- MacArthur - SED, Life Skills, Essential Skills, and Cross-Cat Alt
- Eisenhower - SED, Life Skills, and Cross-Cat Alt
A statement from the district read, in part: "These suspended programs affect 528 students. However, classes continued as usual for more than 8,000 students in Decatur Public Schools. We continue to welcome any Teaching Assistants back to programs that remain open."
Both parties have said they are willing to work together if a contract can be reached. However, no meetings have been scheduled yet.
