From news service reports

FRAMINGHAM, Mass. – Saul Alinsky will never die.

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Dissatisfied with its lack of success in the fight for a new teachers’ contract, the Framingham Teachers’ Association is escalating its intimidation tactics against the school committee. The union has created a database to collect personal information on board members, including information on people – spouses – who have nothing to do with school affairs.

The Boston Globe reports:

In an attempt to make the town’s School Committee “feel the same stresses that we have,” the union representing Framingham teachers has urged its members to volunteer personal information they know about committee members, including what health clubs they belong to, and where their spouses work.

The move, perceived by school administrators as an escalation tactic in ongoing contract negotiations, initially unnerved some School Committee members and their families, including the wife of chairman David Miles.

“My wife was a little more alarmed than I was. She went into mother mode,” said Miles, whose son attends Framingham High School. “I’ve never seen anything like that before. I was perplexed by it. Of course you can think bad thoughts right away, ‘What are they going to do with that information on my wife and kids?’ But of course I don’t think they would do something dangerous or harmful.”

In a memo e-mailed to some of the 1,018 union members, which includes almost 800 teachers, Framingham Teachers’ Association president Sam Miskin accused the School Committee of “trying to stay protected” by “distancing themselves from the issues.” He suggested a change in the union’s actions that would focus directly on the School Committee.

“Many of us have felt some degree of stress in coming to work due to the contract struggles and it is not right that the committee put this on us,” Miskin wrote. “For all of the stress we have felt, we owe it to the committee to return the favor. . . . The focus will now be on making the committee feel the same stresses that we have.”

Why do “professionals” resort to such bare-knuckled intimidation tactics? To eek a little more out of taxpayers in pay and benefits.