Detroit’s Teachers Talk Strike

Thousands of Detroit teachers picketed Tuesday amid tense contract negotiations and fears of a strike that could delay the start of school.

Chanting, “No contract, no work,” and wearing placards with slogans such as “Hands Off My Benefits,” members of the Detroit Federation of Teachers marched around the city’s landmark Fisher Building next door to the school district’s headquarters.

The district wants $105 million in concessions from its unions. The union says teachers already are some of the lowest paid in the area. It is seeking a raise for top-scale teachers with master’s degrees.

Teachers are supposed to start work Monday, with classes for the approximately 130,000 students beginning the following week, on Sept. 5. Teachers are expected to vote Sunday on whether to report to work the following day.

A teachers strike in 1999 delayed the start of school for a week.

In March, an estimated 1,500 of the district’s 10,000 teachers called in sick one day, forcing more than 50 schools to close in what officials described as a sick-out to protest a temporary pay cut. Teachers had to give up five days of pay to help balance the district’s budget.