Teachers are still winning strikes

Fifteen school districts went out on strike in Washington state at the same time earlier this month.
It didn't get the same sort of media attention as West Virginia and Arizona, because it wasn't statewide.
Nevertheless, the results were encouraging.

Evergreen teachers walked for almost two weeks before agreeing to raises averaging 11.5 percent, considerably more than the district’s initial 1.9 percent offer. Battle Ground and Tumwater were the last to settle, after more than two weeks out.

Battleground and Tumwater were especially interesting because they directly defied a court order.

A Clark County Superior Court judge signed an injunction Friday morning against the Battle Ground Education Association, ordering teachers to return to the classroom Monday.

However, at a Battle Ground Education Association general membership meeting that evening, teachers voted by a rate of 89 percent to defy the order. Teachers will remain on the picket lines until a settlement is reached, said Marina Heinz, vice president for the union.

And stay out they did. Eventually the teachers got most of what they wanted.

Tacoma teachers struck for a week, furious at a 3.1 percent raise offer. The district offered bonus pay to anyone who crossed the picket line. Anne Hawkins, who was selected last year as one of Tacoma’s “unforgettable teachers,” protested by submitting her resignation.
...
Tacoma teachers finally ratified a tentative agreement with 14.5 percent increases for teachers and 19 percent increases for office professionals. They also reduced the work year from 190 to 185 days.
...
Educators were buoyed by what Tacoma Longshore (ILWU) worker Zack Pattin described as “massive shows of support.”
Picket lines and rallies attracted longshore workers, Teamsters, firefighters, carpenters, health care workers, electricians, and school marching bands.

Proof that it pays to fight for what you deserve.
Next up: Los Angeles.

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than it appears. It's not just about raises out of the blue.
The McCleary decision meant for the first time in a long time, districts had money that is specifically allocated to raises. It isn't to be used for anything else, but each district had to negotiate the amount. I have a friend whose district offered 3%. The one next to her, just miles away, gave their staff a 20% raise. Her district went on strike.
It's a shame that teachers have to strike to get a decent paycheck. It's worse that they have to strike to get what was allocated for them by law.

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less cia candidates!

Oh, now this is low down and dirty: The district offered bonus pay to anyone who crossed the picket line.

I suppose it is better than bats, though.

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dfarrah

The Aspie Corner's picture

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Modern education is little more than toeing the line for the capitalist pigs.

Guerrilla Liberalism won't liberate the US or the world from the iron fist of capital.

@The Aspie Corner

Proof that it pays to fight for what you deserve.

I'm sick and tired of hearing about who is deserving, because in that world I'm not, ever. In this world granny deserves to die in the ditch, moved along until departed. Teachers don't give a shit for disabled queer spinster granny, and neither do their students. That's the system.

It's raining off and on in Cloverdale since yesterday. I hope the wine-grape harvest rots in hell where it belongs, the inedible cancer causing crop. Maybe the beer plant will collapse, and the saw mills will close. That would be great. Take the gravel mines too. Let there be fishes, and healthy forests, and healthy commerce. Teach that why not.

peace

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The Aspie Corner's picture

@eyo Many of those teachers will go right back to teaching kids rote memorization rather than critical analysis. It's what their livelihoods depend on.

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Modern education is little more than toeing the line for the capitalist pigs.

Guerrilla Liberalism won't liberate the US or the world from the iron fist of capital.

divineorder's picture

Second class citizens in TX.

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A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.

earthling1's picture

Living in the Evergreen School District I personally witnessed majority of vehicles passing teachers walking picket lines honking their horns in approval.
While the local MSM affiliate come up with a poll showing 65% against the strike.
Fake news all around us.

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Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.

Centaurea's picture

@earthling1

I was very pleased to see the public support for the teachers' unions here in SW WA, which is a fairly conservative area.

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"Don't go back to sleep ... Don't go back to sleep ... Don't go back to sleep."
~Rumi

"If you want revolution, be it."
~Caitlin Johnstone

WindDancer13's picture

Have any of those strikes done anything about reducing the impact of "No Child Left Behind"?

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We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.--Aristotle
If there is no struggle there is no progress.--Frederick Douglass