Platform

Union Strong ran on the promise of building an organizing union. Since assuming office on June 3rd, we have worked diligently beside members on the three pillars of our campaign:

Amplifying member voice

• Increased transparency by combining delegate and membership meetings, sharing joint committee notes, and creating a comprehensive weekly newsletter

• Launched working groups to identify and solve problems in special education, related services, PK-8 schools, and the grading policy

• Successfully advocated for the resignation of Spaziano’s principal after a 100% no-confidence vote from faculty

• Endorsed 10 candidates in citywide elections and began building a transparent, member-led endorsement process

• Organized meetings with speech language pathologists and 797 to advocate for their needs and rights and to reject harmful proposals from district staff

• Attended union faculty meetings at multiple schools to listen directly to members and respond to their needs

Increasing educator supports 

• • Built a modern grievance-tracking system to streamline issues, resulting in over 60 resolved finance grievances that has won over $500,000 in lost wages for members

  • Resolved all ESY grievances, restoring daily rate pay and recall rights

  • Worked with PPSD to change the 26-27 pay schedule so members on 26 paychecks no longer have a gap in June and can be paid biweekly, all year long

  • Built a delegate handbook and training program to support building-level problem solving, and facilitated the first training session to over 30 members

  • Saved the union over $48,000 by cancelling duplicate contracts and better utilizing resources from RIFTHP and AFT National

  • Redistributed the President’s salary to support professional development for members and restarted collaborations with PPSD and AFT to provide member-led PD

  • Supported candidate Bill O’Brien’s Rule of 85 bill, which will be RIFTHP’s legislative focus this spring

Winning a strong contract for all members

• Re-established committees and practices outlined in the contract that have been dormant or underutilized for many years

• Connected with unions across the country to learn about their contract campaigns

• Engaged in trainings, research, and study groups to learn about best practices in negotiations and built out a training calendar for the spring

We are proud of the work the entire membership has done to improve our union over the past five months. These wins have been accomplished collaboratively, alongside hundreds of members who have contributed your time, talents, and ideas. An organizing union requires reaching across lines of difference, repairing harm when needed, and respecting the perspectives of every member. We have taken this call seriously and are committed to continuing to lead with integrity, transparency, and a relentlessly collaborative spirit. 

We still have much work to do. Most importantly, our current contract expires on August 31, 2027 and we must start building our campaign now. We have been soliciting ideas at every member event and hope to launch working groups in January to write proposals for each article. From there, we will build contract action teams to organize around and advocate for our proposals. Our goal is a strong contract that is written for and won by members. We are asking for your vote to continue this important work of building an organizing union. Our efforts, together, will win us the working conditions we deserve. 

Union Strong's platform centers on three pillars: 

1. Amplify teacher voice:

• Build strong, transparent, building level organization at every school. Currently, not every school has a union delegate or functioning Union Faculty Committee (UFC), Instructional Leadership Team (ILT), or School Improvement Team. Establishing and strengthening these bodies through training and support will allow PTU members to have greater collective voice.

• Rebuild and expand PTU's district wide presence. Our members know what is best for students and need to make our voices heard, but you don't see much about PTU on the news and in the public. Lindsay and Union Strong will leverage press connections, social media, community forums, and more to reclaim the narrative about our schools. 

2. Increase educator supports:

• Reinstate and strengthen new teacher support and mentorship. PPSD and PTU used to collaborate on professional development and PPSD provided more funding to new teacher and peer assistance programs. Union Strong slate members have the experience to implement and the skill to pressure the district to reallocate its funding from costly consultants to PTU members.

• End administrators' retaliatory behavior through assertive grievances and work actions. When union leaders don't enforce the grievance process or back members up, a culture of fear develops. Lindsay has experience reversing retaliatory discipline and will proactively monitor administrator issues district wide.

3. Win a strong contract for all members

• Involve members democratically to win better pay and benefits. Current leadership uses negotiation strategies that are ineffective: a few teachers making deals behind closed doors without the help of a professional contract negotiator. The result? Members are making significantly less money (when adjusted for inflation) in 2026 than they were in 2020:

• Step 1: $5,500 LESS

• Step 6: $9,600 LESS

• Step 12: $10,400 LESS 

With the help of a skilled labor negotiator, Lindsay and Union Strong will revamp the contract process. When unions involve as many members as possible in negotiations, the outcomes are better:

• Fall River Educators Association organized hundreds of members to attend negotiations and won 18-21% pay increases for 2025-2027, plus additional stipend & hourly increases.

• Boston Teachers Union involved regular members in writing contract language and posted detailed updates after every negotiation session to all members. They won 20-30% pay raises for TAs, and 9-11.5% raises for teachers for 2024-2027, plus improved staffing.

• Negotiate to improve our professional autonomy so we can actually do our jobs. Daily responsibilities have increased and the district continues to make unilateral decisions about how we do our work -- but a contract can be a place to push back. Teacher unions across the US are using their contract to negotiate around testing, curriculum, school safety and student discipline, and more. PTU can do that too.