Striking Teachers, Once Jailed, Reunite

Wearing sweatshirts bearing the number of New Haven teachers who were sent to jail in a historic two-week strike back in 1975 — 90 of them! — 25 members of that proud class of incarcerated instructors gathered for a reunion Saturday morning.

They met for a photo shoot and to plan further commemorative events on the steps of the New Haven County Courthouse at 235 Church St.

That was the exact location where, a half century before, Judge George A. Saden of the Superior Court ​“would not have any of it it,” recalled then teachers union president Frank Carrano. What the judge wouldn’t have any of was that the New Haven Federation of Teachers, who were by law not permitted to go out on strike, should do just that.

In short order the judge sent 12 members of the union’s negotiating team, including Carrano, to jail for violating a back-to-work order.

When 78 other teachers came out in support of their leaders, they too were jailed. Thus the ​“Ninety” on long-time science teacher Shirley Neighbors’s sweatshirt.

“It was worth it,” she recalled. ​“We struck for better supplies and materials for the students, and salaries and benefits.”

There had been at least two strikes in the immediately preceding years, recalled Richard Romao, who taught math at Wilbur Cross, and Ron Comen, who taught middle school and was, at the time, executive vice president of the union.

In those cases, however, leaders were jailed for a few hours or a day and there was no mass arrest.

That in part is what made the 1975 strike significant in Connecticut labor history and resulted, eventually, not only in contract improvements but labor law changes statewide around binding arbitration and, said Carrano, putting management and union on a more equal footing in negotiation.

As it went on in November 1975, and all those teachers were in jail in three different facilities across the state, parental and popular support grew, culminating in a general strike being threatened by 146 unions in the Greater New Haven Labor Council.

Neighbors, who was among the incarcerated sent to a National Guard barracks in Windsor Locks, said teachers knew then what they were facing when they struck.

However, ​“the surprise for me came when the sheriff came to my door to serve a summons; then it was real.”

Organized by current New Haven Board of Education staffer Dr. Pamela Monk-Kelley and Nancy Charest, who helms the New Haven Federation of Teachers 933 (Retired), Saturday’s gathering on the windswept steps of the courthouse was full of warm encounters and double-takes of ​“Is that you?” — good reunion feelings and good vibes. 

The 1975 strike caused ​“good trouble,” said Monk-Kelley, who started her career in 1977. ​“They set a path for teachers to come for better wages, classes, and conditions.”

Cheering on the photo shoot was current NHFT President (and recent civil-disobedience arrestee) Leslie Blatteau, who recognized among the smiling retired strikers Peter Herndon,. He was her mentor when she began as a young social studies teacher at CT Scholars, a kind of mini, more family-style high school to help ninth and tenth graders transition to Wilbur Cross High School. 

“Leslie had such a heart for the kids,” he responded when prodded by a reporter for a memory. He recalled one day when they had been trying all kinds of approaches — breaking kids into groups, other techniques to reach the kids that day, without much luck.

“After class,” he recalled, ​“we were both crying!”

“We have a lot to learn from our predecessors,” said Blatteau, whose union is facing potential cuts of teachers and other staff due to remaining large funding gaps in the Board of Education budget. ​“Like taking risks when needed, and how to be well organized.”

The fight was very much still in the minds of the strikers of 1975.

“They underfund municipal education then and now,” said Nancy Charest, who taught for 35 years. ​“And Yale doesn’t pay its fair share.”

“We can’t get enough teachers to fill positions we have,” said Richard Romao. ​“Tell me where laying off [teachers] makes any sense.”

More talk, more memories, and maybe more organizing will unfold at a range of events planned for this fall featuring retired teachers, parents, and students from the 1975 experience.

“It’s important to recognize the long-term effects of the strike on public education in New Haven,” said the press release that Monk-Kelley sent out in advance of Saturday’s photoshoot. ​“It’s important to note that there has not been another teachers strike in New Haven in the past 50 years.”

For more information about coming events, the contact is [email protected].