In September 2011 the third largest school district in Washington State staved off proposed budget cuts which ended a week-long strike. This took seven hours of intense labor negotiations with the then Governor Christine Gregoire who had to summon both sides to the negotiation table to end the strike. They agreed upon a new labor deal that dealt with such issues as salary cuts, class size, and staffing issues. These ran the gambit of evaluations, sonority, and staffing decisions.
Contents
The strike which kept 28,700 students at home for the week was on the books for eight days. 57 schools where affected by the strike and 1,900 teachers walked off the job on September 13. This was in a direct defiance of the back-to-work court order that was pushed the next day. The Tacoma Education Association approved the new budget by 98.9% the vote was of 1683 Union members.
Union President Andy Coons was quoted as saying “This was not an easy process, but ... we did what had to be done and we did it together." There was also at the proceedings Tacoma’s Superintendent Art Jarvis and the school board President Kurt Miller. Together they rang the ceremonious bell on top of the central office building to signify the start of school year. Jarvis then declared “We call all the children back to school” as the sound of the bell filled the downtown streets and the year started.
The strike begins with “Anti-union attacks across the nation, combined with successful increases in member involvement through local organizing efforts such as Organizing for Power lead to a call by WEA President Mary Lindquist to intensify organizing among members, public school parents, community members and other partner groups. The effort is highlighted symbolically with a Nov. 28 "Day of Action" rally in Olympia and high-profile local events across the state. In September, Bellingham teachers spent a day on the picket line after administrators attempt to take away their already-contracted parent/teacher conference time. On Sept. 13, 1,900 teachers strike in Tacoma, the state's third-largest district, over class size caps, potential pay cuts and eroded contract protections for staff assignments. The strike impacted 28,700 students and ended 10 days later with a new contract that allowed classes to resume Sept. 23.”<Neroulias, 2011></ref>
Origin
Teachers had been working without a contract since September 1 and overwhelmingly voted for a strike after months of stalled negotiations the margin of 9 to 1 put the teacher on the picket line. This vote was on the hills of a margin of 28 votes just a month prior. The change came when the issue of a district proposal to change contract language governing teacher transfers and reassignments. “The language change would give the school board authority over teacher placements. This would facilitate efforts of the administration to push out older teachers with seniority, amounting to age discrimination. Older teachers are being targeted because of their better wages and often higher health care costs.
The district has also presented teachers with two pay-cut choices: sacrifice pay for a personal day and two training days, or take a 1.35 percent reduction in pay and take two-and-a-half furlough days. The TEA has said it wants Tacoma class sizes to be decreased, but the school board insists that reducing classes even by one student would cost the district $1.8 million a year because it would have to hire 30 additional teachers. Washington has the third-most-crowded classrooms of any state in the country.”<Neroulias, 2011></ref>
As was stated earlier teachers were upset about class size and pay cuts. The States position was that at an average salary of $63,793 during last school year, according to the district. They are the best-paid teachers in Pierce County and about the fifth-highest paid among the state's largest districts, behind teachers in Everett, Northshore, Seattle and Bellevue, according to state data.
At the time the State Legislature was proposing a 1.9% budget cut in teachers’ pay. But the school districts had room to figure out how to do this some figured budget cuts elsewhere. In the form of union compromises with local unions and program cuts for children.
CBS news reported: “The News Tribune reports that on the issue of pay, the district said Sunday it has offered teachers two options. They could maintain the current pay schedule and sacrifice pay for one personal day, one individual optional training day and one school-wide training day. Or they could accept an effective 1.35 percent cut in the salary schedule. In exchange, teachers would be allowed to schedule 2.5 furlough days.
The district said it has also offered to keep class size maximums at the current level. The union wants to decrease class sizes, but the district says subtracting one child per class could cost the district about $1.8 million a year.”<CBS Interactive></ref>
The TEA (Tacoma Education Association) was in a contrast position to the budget cuts. Parents and workers in Tacoma had to this point shown solidarity with the picketing teachers. “I got so many texts from parents asking ‘how can we support you?’” Lincoln High School history teacher Nathan Boling told the News Tribune. The paper noted that passing drivers were honking in support.
In contrast, the Washington Education Association, the parent organization of the TEA, has offered no real defense against these attacks on workers. In fact, the unions have repeatedly endorsed the very Democratic Party politicians who have led the way in attacking public education.
The TEA has repeatedly stressed its willingness to “sacrifice,” including foregoing wage raises for its rank-and-file and insisting on the issue of teacher placement that it was “open to changing the way teachers are assigned, but any system must be fair, objective, measurable and consistent.”<Spencer, 2011></ref>
Historical relevance
Teachers (A.K.A. the worker) in the system are historically the scapegoat for budget cuts. Tacoma has attempted to deal with sharp state-level cuts in public education with an attack on teacher pay and conditions by increasing class sizes. Tacoma also has come under pressure to meet the state’s “uniform bar standard,” which ties funding to standardized test scores, graduation rates, and attendance.
The State has cut billions in funding for education, health care, and other basic services over the past few years. Funding for K-12 education, pre-school, and after-school programs suffered cuts of more than $800 million in 2009-2011, and teachers have been subjected to repeated wage freezes in the last decade."<Neroulias, 2011>
If this trend is allowed to continue one can contend that keeping talented and motivated teachers in public education will dwindle and the possibility of Charter schools will become more of a political and economic option in debates in the future.