Teacher Strike!

[SEC=UGA]

CBS/AP) TACOMA, Wash. - Teachers in the Washington city of Tacoma voted overwhelmingly Monday evening in favor of a strike.

 

 

That means after only seven days of school, the 28,000 children in Washington state's third-largest school district will be staying home Tuesday. Tacoma Education Association spokesman Rich Wood said 87 percent of the union's total membership voted to walk out.

 

 

Tacoma School District spokesman Dan Voelpel said the district will seek an immediate court injunction Tuesday to terminate the strike, which school officials contend is illegal. Superintendent Art Jarvis will revisit the decision to keep school closed in light of whatever happens in court, Voelpel said.

 

 

Voelpel told CBS News affiliate KIRO-TV of Seattle that teachers are refusing to bargain or budge from their demands.

 

 

"No one wins in a strike," he told KIRO-TV. "It would be very difficult for our staff and for everyone involved. We would really prefer to hammer these issues out at the bargaining table."

 

 

Several teachers told KIRO-TV that walking off the job is necessary to get their point across to the district.

 

 

Both the Washington attorney general and state judges have ruled that state public employees do not have the right to strike.

 

 

Teachers have been working without a contract since Sept. 1. The teachers union negotiated with the school district over the weekend but the two sides failed to agree on a contract proposal.

 

 

A strike vote at the end of August failed to pass by about 28 votes. Union bylaws require approval by 80 percent of the nearly 1,900 members to authorize a strike.

 

 

Issues in dispute include teacher pay, class size and seniority.

 

 

Since the last strike vote was so close, the union decided to allow members with schedule conflicts to vote early. About 200 union members with after-school responsibilities like coaching voted Friday or Saturday, Wood said. This time, 1,623 of the union's 1,869 members voted to walk out, he said.

 

 

A 2006 state attorney general's opinion said that state and local public employees — including teachers — do not have a legally protected right to strike. That opinion also noted that state law does not contain specific penalties for striking public employees.

 

 

During several past teacher strikes, Washington school districts have gone to court and judges have issued orders ordering teachers back to work.

 

 

In Washington, only the Seattle and Spokane school districts are larger than Tacoma.

 

 

Tacoma teachers earned 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.

 

 

The Legislature included in its state budget a 1.9 percent cut in teacher pay but left it up to school districts to figure out how to save that money. Some districts have made cuts elsewhere, some have cut teacher pay, and others have worked out compromises with their local teachers union.

 

 

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.

[Savage Beatings]

Simple. Fire them.

[tosberg34]

Remember - it's all about the children.

[The Holy Roller]

$63,793! Holy Mother of God! Slavery!

 

Sorry, fellow teachers, I have no sympathy for you in this one.

Edited September 13, 2011 by The Holy Roller

[SLAYER]

$63,793! Holy Mother of God! Slavery!

 

Sorry, fellow teachers, I have no sympathy for you in this one.

Same thing I thought when I read it.

[The Mucca]

Wouldn't that average to a little over $300.00 a day? WOW

[Yukon Cornelius]

$63,793! Holy Mother of God! Slavery!

 

Sorry, fellow teachers, I have no sympathy for you in this one.

yah i think there may be one teacher in my district that makes that much.

[westvirginia]

Yeah, they need to have a coke and a smile and shut the F up.

Edited September 13, 2011 by westvirginia

[tosberg34]

They're doing it for THE CHILDREN! It's ALL about the children. The children would want the teachers to make more and work less.

[bpwallace49]

First of all . . . 80% needed to authorize a strike? and they actually GOT that may to vote for a strike with that kind of compensation package?

 

Secondly, they are dumb as hell to do this. Perfect example of a union going overboard. Get rid of em and start over.

[SEC=UGA]

That 63 K in Tacoma is equivalent to 61.5K in Milwaukee.

[tosberg34]

That 63 K in Tacoma is equivalent to 61.5K in Milwaukee.

 

Isn't that the under the poverty level?

[SayItAintSoJoe]

First of all . . . 80% needed to authorize a strike? and they actually GOT that may to vote for a strike with that kind of compensation package?

 

Secondly, they are dumb as hell to do this. Perfect example of a union going overboard. Get rid of em and start over.

 

What?

 

These teachers aren't asking for raises. Instead they want their pay not to be cut. They already agreed to forego a pay raise that they had negotiated in the past.

 

If you can get past the $63K and look more into the situation you will realize that there is a lot more to this than the pay.

 

The News Tribune

 

But both union and school district leaders say that pay isn’t the hot-button issue in negotiations. They say the biggest controversy surrounds a school district proposal to change the way teachers are reassigned and transferred within the district.

 

The district has proposed a list of 10 criteria that would be considered, in addition to seniority, in the case of involuntary transfers. The union objects to six of the 10, saying they are too subjective and could lead to abuses.

 

 

 

Read more: http://www.thenewstribune.com/2011/09/08/1...l#ixzz1Xrbq4dg4

 

The $63K in the story gets a lot of people riled up against the teachers by making it look like that is what this strike is all about.

Edited September 13, 2011 by SayItAintSoJoe

[Savage Beatings]

So too bad if they need to take a cut. Our wages were frozen where I work while we continually laid off more and more people. Sometimes you have to make tough decisions. Why should teachers be expempt from feeling the consequences of this crappy economy?

[bpwallace49]

What?

 

These teachers aren't asking for raises. Instead they want their pay not to be cut. They already agreed to forego a pay raise that they had negotiated in the past.

 

If you can get past the $63K and look more into the situation you will realize that there is a lot more to this than the pay.

 

 

Read more: http://www.thenewstribune.com/2011/09/08/1...l#ixzz1Xrbq4dg4

 

The $63K in the story gets a lot of people riled up against the teachers by making it look like that is what this strike is all about.

 

They are striking, and one of their issues is their pay may be cut slightly over 1%. The entire budget was cut. So therefore on average they will get 630-ish dollars less over the course of a year (pretax of course). What is the alternative? Their budget was cut, and they need to cut the labor expense by the 1+ %.

 

I dont know Joe . . . do you consider this something worth striking over? Especially in light of their average salaries? It could be argued that the budget was cut BECAUSE average compensation was too high and it needed to be corrected.

[Egret]

Teacher strikes are illegal here in Michigan.... I wouldn't want to strike. I make a very good wage for what I do.

[BeeR]

The contract between the school district and the TEA expired Aug. 31,

Brilliant setup on that timing

 

Any particular reason they couldn't have contracts go from June to June, giving the summer to work this stuff out? Or does that make too much sense for unions/the administrators/whatever to agree to?

[Yukon Cornelius]

Teacher strikes are illegal here in Michigan.... I wouldn't want to strike. I make a very good wage for what I do.

same here.

[SayItAintSoJoe]

They are striking, and one of their issues is their pay may be cut slightly over 1%. The entire budget was cut. So therefore on average they will get 630-ish dollars less over the course of a year (pretax of course). What is the alternative? Their budget was cut, and they need to cut the labor expense by the 1+ %.

 

I dont know Joe . . . do you consider this something worth striking over? Especially in light of their average salaries? It could be argued that the budget was cut BECAUSE average compensation was too high and it needed to be corrected.

 

I don't know enough about it. In addition to the pay cut are they being asked to pay more of their own insurance? If so, I would consider that an additional pay cut. Are they being asked to take on bigger class sizes? If so and it is for the same (or less) pay I consider that a pay cut.

 

The fact that they reached the 80% threshold to strike makes me think that there is more here than meets the eye. This issue over teachers being transferred seem to be important to them from what I've read. I don't know if the teachers are right or wrong. All I know is that I'm not going to just look at their avg salary and base my entire opinion on that.

[bpwallace49]

I don't know enough about it. In addition to the pay cut are they being asked to pay more of their own insurance? If so, I would consider that an additional pay cut. Are they being asked to take on bigger class sizes? If so and it is for the same (or less) pay I consider that a pay cut.

 

The fact that they reached the 80% threshold to strike makes me think that there is more here than meets the eye. This issue over teachers being transferred seem to be important to them from what I've read. I don't know if the teachers are right or wrong. All I know is that I'm not going to just look at their avg salary and base my entire opinion on that.

 

I would agree with that. But in this economy, with well documented backlashed against public unions, does this appear to be a wise move, especially when the compensation is a matter of public record?

 

Not fair versus unfair, but in the court of public opinion? Most people wont read their contract line by line, so that the headlines that include salary are as deep as it will go with most. Keeping that in mind, are these details worth going to the mattresses over?

[SayItAintSoJoe]

I would agree with that. But in this economy, with well documented backlashed against public unions, does this appear to be a wise move, especially when the compensation is a matter of public record?

 

Not fair versus unfair, but in the court of public opinion? Most people wont read their contract line by line, so that the headlines that include salary are as deep as it will go with most. Keeping that in mind, are these details worth going to the mattresses over?

 

Like I said, I don't know enough about it. I do know that unions take seniority very seriously. If they feel that seniority is somehow being circumvented then they may feel that it is something worth going to the mattresses for.

[bpwallace49]

Like I said, I don't know enough about it. I do know that unions take seniority very seriously. If they feel that seniority is somehow being circumvented then they may feel that it is something worth going to the mattresses for.

 

Very true. But that detail is also something that most other Americans cannot relate to, because they do not have that luxury in their jobs. Ergo that will generate very little sympathy, as is illustrated in this thread.

[rocknrobn26]

First of all . . . 80% needed to authorize a strike? and they actually GOT that may to vote for a strike with that kind of compensation package?

 

Secondly, they are dumb as hell to do this. Perfect example of a union going overboard. Get rid of em and start over.

 

Teacher unions are NOT like the "Hoffa Teamsters". That is the National DOES NOT CALL A STRIKE! The local does that. They are what the constituents (local members) say they are and act accordingly nothing more. That is the National Union does NOT have any say so in whether or not to strike. Teacher unions are local and only LOCAL! The national/state is there only for resources, help, and ancillary stats. They (The National) have no say/opinion to strike, except for help for the local. If they ask for help, they get it, but they don't get mandates from the national/state union.

 

As far as the union members only thinking about their salaries....no one knows what they are striking for line by line of a proposed agreement! It could have some student welfare, it may not, but typically the details are not exposed during negotiations.

 

I have no comment about the strike itself. Just read the above and be informed about how teacher unions work.

[gbpfan1231]

Very true. But that detail is also something that most other Americans cannot relate to, because they do not have that luxury in their jobs. Ergo that will generate very little sympathy, as is illustrated in this thread.

Agree with you. It will also be interesting that by doing this strike opens the union up to a lot more scrutiny. Look at all of the things that have been uncovered in all the different union contracts in Wisconsin.

 

The media will take those things and run and create animosity between union workers and nonunion workers. Things like price gouging on union health insurance, very high amounts of sick days, carrying over sick days, double dipping of retirement, etc. All of these things have been uncovered and have created a big backlash here in Wisconsin - makes you wonder if some of these similar things will be uncovered when people begin to dig into the contracts here that are being negotiated???

[Ditkaless Wonders]

It's always about the money. When they ay it is not about the money that is only because they are not being honest, certainly with us, but perhaps also with themselves.