By Steve Klamkin WPRO News
With Providence and its teachers union away from the bargaining table despite working under a contract that expired nearly a year ago, the President of the American Federation of Teachers comes to the city, tours two schools, and weighs in on the impasse.
“It’s concerning,” Randi Weingarten, President of the American Federation of Teachers told reporters outside Mount Pleasant High School on Thursday afternoon.
“You know, Providence, Rhode Island is not Oklahoma City or Phoenix, Arizona,” two cities that have recently gone through wrenching contract disputes with its teachers.
“The fact that a mayor of this city is not sitting down, trying to solve these problems and acting more like we see in states that haven’t really cared about their kids is shocking to me,” Weingarten said. She expressed the hope that Mayor Jorge Elorza would sit down with the heads of the Providence Teachers Union and the statewide Rhode Island Federation of Teachers and Healthcare Professionals to talk.
“All of this is a process,” Elorza told WPRO News on Wednesday, adding that lawyers for the two sides are talking.
“You know, they received a raise about 11 months ago, and I’m willing to come to some kind of agreement that’s fair for everyone involved. A big factor in that equation is what do our kids get out of it as well? We know that the status quo is just not cutting it. We need to do more, we need to do things differently,” Elorza said.
President Maribeth Calabro of the Providence Teachers Union expressed frustration at the lack of face to face talks.
“The last time I sat with the Mayor, for a luncheon that was put together by (City Council) President (David) Salvatore, the Mayor assured me more than once that he would reach out and get to negotiations and get back to the table, and he spoke to his attorney and said ‘you make sure that you do that’,” said Calabro.
“It’s been three weeks since then, and I have yet to speak to anyone about getting having a sit-down. So, again, the mayor says one thing to the press and does another thing.”
Earlier, Weingarten, who is in Providence for Democratic National Committee meetings over the weekend, also toured the Pleasant View Elementary School, where she arranged for the donation of 2,000 books.
