TEACHER STRIKE FALLOUT - It’s all about how mayoral hopefuls spin it

By JOHN P. KELLY
The Patriot Ledger

Hours after teachers first assembled their picket lines around the city, Tom Koch dispatched a statement labeling the strike a ‘‘deeply troubling’’ symptom of Mayor William Phelan’s leadership style.

The political backdrop remained evident in the days that followed. Picketing teachers, some in ‘‘Koch for Mayor’’ T-shirts, chanted ‘‘We’ll remember in November.’’

Phelan - on television, talk radio, and at press conferences - repeated in campaign fashion that his rigid stance on doubling employee health care premiums was, at its root, a defense of taxpayers.

Political analysts said the highly charged week will no doubt impact the mayoral campaigns, even with the election still five months off. But whether Koch or Phelan stand to gain long-term will depend heavily on how the candidates frame the issue once the dust settles.

‘‘Clearly (Phelan) is going to lose some votes’’ in the school community, Tufts University political science professor Jeffrey Berry said. But that might prove a small price to pay, Berry said, if tax-conscious voters view the health care outcome as a victory for the mayor.

‘‘For a working-class suburb like Quincy, a lot of people are feeling the squeeze of rising costs and property taxes,’’ Berry said. ‘‘They’ll appreciate the fact the mayor hung tough during what appeared on the surface to be a very uncomfortable situation.’’

Questions have been raised lately over the price the Phelan administration has paid in perks and salary increases in order to get two police unions and, tentatively, the teachers union to relinquish their 10 percent health care premium obligation and $5 co-payments.

The city council for weeks refused to authorize spending for the police contracts until the administration provided a cost break-down at the request of City Councilor Daniel Raymondi.

Both police unions secured 13 percent raises over four years as well a pension boosting, 10 percent raise over their 28th and 29th years of service. The agreements, reached after months of wrangling, differed from the contract agreed to last year by library workers, a lower-paid and smaller union, for 8.5 percent raises over three years.

Koch accuses Phelan of ‘‘giving the store away’’ to the police superior officers union - whose members all earned above $105,000 last year as Quincy’s top-paid employees.

Michael Kryzanek, a professor of political science at Bridgewater State College, said broadcast-media coverage of the strike might prove damaging to Phelan.

‘‘Most of what you saw on television was the mayor behind closed doors, a lot of angry teachers, and a lot of parents supporting teachers and honking their horns,’’ Kryzanek said. ‘‘But people have short memories,’’ he said.

Berry, the Tufts political science professor, said the challenge for Koch will now be to recruit frustrated teachers to lend their support to his campaign.

During the four-day illegal strike, Koch’s campaign was cautious not to align itself too closely with teachers, though Koch himself attended at least one major rally. Fiona Canavan, a volunteer on his campaign who was also a leading voice in support of teachers, was asked to keep the two roles separate. On Wednesday, the campaign said it organized 300 volunteers to line Quincy Shore Drive with campaign signs, though steps were taken to ensure to strike-related signs were present.

In an interview as schools reopened this week, Koch said he felt teachers needed to publicly spotlight their ‘‘plight’’ after 15 months of fruitless contract talks, but he stopped short of supporting their decision to walk-off the job.

‘‘It’s a difficult issue,’’ he said. ‘‘You don’t want to see the kids and families suffer.’’

Koch said Phelan failed to negotiate a shift in employee health care contributions during contract talks in 2002 and has resorted to what he termed ‘‘crisis management’’ in the face of mounting health care expenses.

‘‘If I were mayor it would have been on the table four years ago,’’ Koch said. Doubling employee premiums could have been a more gradual process, he said.

Koch pointed to his involvement in 1990 contract talks, when he served as the top aide to then-Mayor James Sheets, as an example of his ability to deal smoothly with union heads in tough financial times.

The city faced a $14 million deficit, and city workers agreed to forgo salary increases, while others were laid off, Koch said.

The mayor declined to comment for this article. His spokesman, David Murphy, accused Koch of cautiously playing ‘‘Monday morning quarterback’’ only in the aftermath of the strike. He said Koch did nothing during the Sheets administration to shift a greater percentage of health care costs to employees.

Former Police Chief William Falco, who was president of the superior officers union in the early 1990s, said negotiating with Koch was ‘‘like taking candy from a baby.’’ He described a negotiation in which Koch agreed to a costly staffing perk and displayed ‘‘no experience.’’

Koch dismissed the remarks as coming from ‘‘they mayor’s junkyard dog of the week.’’ Falco, a lieutenant at the time, was Phelan’s pick for police chief in 2002.

Ledger Line Results

Q. Do you agree with the decision by the Quincy teachers union to strike?

No 44 % Yes 56 %
598 responses

Of the calls in support of the teachers, 44 percent were from outside the 617 area code, which includes Quincy. Some 20 percent of the calls against the strike were from area codes other than 617.

John P. Kelly may be reached at jkelly@ledger.com .

Copyright 2007 The Patriot Ledger
Transmitted Saturday, June 16, 2007