Berkshire

Unless a new contract is reached by month's end, city teachers won't receive an across-the-board salary increase for the current budget year. The city has $335,000 set aside to cover a 1 percent retroactive salary increase for this fiscal year -- if the teachers union and Pittsfield School Committee reaches a contract agreement by June 30. But if not, budget rules dictate that money goes back into the city's general fund.

As the state Office of Labor and Workforce Development released its April 2011 figures for Berkshire County, the jobless rate dropped by nearly one full percentage point, even as the actual labor force totals for the county fell.

"I have never experienced such childish, hostile and divisive maneuvers by my superiors as I have encountered in the past months as the nurses and the hospital attempt to come to a contract settlement," writes Erika Susan Hussain.

Mayor James Ruberto appointed the former North Adams mayor to the position just a week after Barrett's contract as a public works consultant ended. According to Pittsfield Director of Administration Tricia Farley-Bouvier, Barrett fills the shoes of Michael Herrick who retired last Monday.

MNA representative Patti Williams said the union is willing to return to the bargaining table after the public demonstration. "Right now, our attention is on Thursday," she said. "After Thursday, we would certainly be open and willing to go back to the table."

Tyler Street is a well-traveled road, so it's not unusual to hear the honking of car and truck horns. But around the noontime hour on Monday, the number and frequency of honks was constant, as passing motorists sounded their horns to salute about 60 members of six unions rallying for workers' rights in front of the IUE-CWA John F. Kennedy Jr. union hall.

With Wisconsin labor unions still battling over state budgets, local unions will show their support. The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Local 1067, the Association of Professional Administrators and the Faculty Association at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, the McCann Teachers Association, the American Postal Workers Union Local 638 and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) will descend on City Hall Monday to rally in support of union rights.

Berkshire community College will now train future green-energy worker with the help of the Northeast Utilities Foundation. The college announced Monday that it will establish a Sustainable Energy Resource Training Center with a $201,067 grant from the foundation.

"I think teachers across the country are getting tired of being blamed for the broken economy," Aaron Dean, the president of the teachers union, said in a phone interview. "It's being laid at our feet. Every time things are bad, they want us to give and want us to give. When is it going to stop?"