The 10-day strike that began November 29 by 1,000 members of the Middletown Township Education Association (MTEA) polarized the community, with many middle-class people condemning the teachers for disrupting their lives, not being respectful to those who died September 11, and threatening property values in the area.

Although the teachers returned to work December 10, the issues that led to the strike are far from resolved. "The school board has been trying to break the back of the union for 15 years," said Mel Clifford, a teacher at Middletown High School North. Her view of the antiunion drive by the school board was echoed by many on strike.

During the week of the walkout, striking teachers assembled with their supporters outside the Monmouth County Hall of Records in Freehold, waiting to be called before Monmouth County Superior Court Judge Clarkson Fisher Jr. The strikers, called in alphabetical order, were asked by the judge if they would return to work. Striker after striker said "no" and was then handcuffed in pairs and hauled off to jail. Some of the handcuffed teachers held their fists in the air and received a standing ovation from their co-workers in the spectator section of the courtroom.

"We keep getting stepped on," Barbara Bachmeister, one of the jailed teachers, said when she appeared in court. "After a while, you have to stand up and do what's right. That's what we're doing."

The teachers contract expired June 30. At the heart of the dispute is how much the MTEA members would have to pay toward health insurance premiums. The current plan, which the union is fighting to maintain, has each unionist paying a flat fee of $250, with up to $1,400 in deductibles for family health coverage. The school board is demanding each teacher pay a percentage of his or her health-care premium based on a sliding scale. Other issues include pay raises and workload.

Strikes by public employees are prohibited in New Jersey. This is the second largest jailing of striking teachers in the state. According to the New Jersey Education Association, 300 teachers in Newark were sent to jail in the 1960s for refusing to return to work. And in Camden teachers were jailed in 1978. The Middletown strike came on the heels of a four-day strike by the MTEA in 1998 that ended in the school board imposing a contract.

Robert Chase, president of the National Education Association, said the mass jailing of the Middletown teachers was the largest number of arrests of teachers he could recall since 1978 when 300 teachers were imprisoned in Bridgeport, Connecticut, for going on strike.

"Certain laws have to be broken and civil disobedience is a great American tradition," said MTEA president Diane Swaim.  
 
Strike watched nationwide
The strike and jailing of the Middletown teachers was watched closely by thousands of teachers across the United States, especially those who are involved in contract negotiations with school board officials. Last week, 150 teachers in Livingston, New Jersey--one of four Essex County districts still without contracts--held a rally as their negotiators entered talks.

"Oh, yes, we have been watching [the Middletown strike]," said Jerry Spindel, a member of the Massachusetts Education Association. "It certainly resonated here, and there has been a great outpouring of sympathy."

"What they went through is something never to be forgotten, a rallying cry. If it doesn't do that for all the association leaders, we should just fold our tents," said Giovanna Musto, an elementary school teacher in Piscataway, New Jersey, who is also president of the Piscataway Township Education Association. She was among scores of union members from across the state who traveled to the courthouse in Freehold to support the Middletown teachers as they appeared before Superior Court judges.

Many students came out to support the teachers, including Jon Downs, the 17-year-old vice president of the senior class at Middletown High School South, who spoke at a teachers rally December 5. Some students outside the courthouse sported signs saying, "Free the teachers." Nicole Shabat-Waugh, 17, a senior at Middletown South, told the Asbury Park Press, "These teachers are a big part of everyone's life. I don't think they should go to jail for fighting for what they believe in."

The strike also registered polarization among residents in Middletown, and the nearby communities of Leonardo and Belford, many of whom mentioned that they were opposed to the teachers walkout. A number of people said the teachers made "good money," and cited how it is now commonplace for people to pay a portion of their health-care costs. A few complained about the inconvenience to themselves and their children by the action of the teachers.

Robert Hordt, the business editor of the Asbury Park Press, echoed this view in a front-page opinion article in the December 9 business section of that paper. Titled "Unions hung up on health care," he stated, "The teachers made a huge mistake. The world has changed. The vast majority of employees working today are paying a portion of their premiums, and it's a lot more than the $250 a year that the Middletown teachers originally were willing to pay."

In the working-class neighborhood of nearby Red Bank, the attitude among many others was quite different. Explaining that one of her church members was a striker and her mother a union member, Delores McKinney, who works in a children's clothing store there, said, "Of course I support the strike."

Nancy Rosenstock is a member of the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees in Perth Amboy, New Jersey.
 
 
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