Teachers Strike In New York

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31780, 10 September 1968, Page 17

Teachers Strike In New York

(N.Z.P. A.-Reuter —Copyright)

NEW YORK, September 9.

The city ’s schoolchildren were all set for an extended summer holiday today as a teachers’ strike hit the opening of the new term for the second year running.

A colour bar in reverse is behind the dispute, which could mean 1,100,000 children going without their lessons. Last night, the United Federation of Teachers, which has 55,000 members, voted overwhemingly to strike in support of 19 white colleagues, dismissed by a Negroled experimental school board. The strikers claim that the board, set up as part of an experiment to decentralise the vast 900-school system, has no right to dismiss teachers. The school board is in the Ocean Hills-Brownsville section of Brooklyn and is headed by a Negro administrator, Mr Rhody McCoy. It is an area of concentrated Negro population.

After their dismissal last (northern) spring, 10 of the 19 dismissed teachers were cleared by a Negro judge called in to investigate the dispute. The local board refused to reinstate the teachers and hired 200 additional teachers to replace a similar number who staged a protest boycott over the dismissals. The New York Mayor (Mr John Lindsay) said last night that the city’s schools would open on schedule today, despite the teachers’ strike. But police have been ordered to stand by at the schools to prevent possible clashes. And it appeared doubtful if the children would be learning much today.