The Strike is Over but the Aftermath?
The Seattle Education Association membership voted - 78% voting, with 57% ayes - to suspend the strike against Seattle Public Schools. This is good news.
SPS said that school will start tomorrow, Wednesday the 14th, which is welcome news to students and parents.
However, two things happened that do not bode well, at least for teachers.
One, from reading the SEA Facebook page, it was a contentious meeting. And, apparently one member thought it a good idea to allow a Seattle Times reporter to listen in. I'll go old school here and say, "Not cool."
From The Seattle Times:
The vote came after a nearly eight-hour Zoom call with numerous tense exchanges between union leadership and general membership. The union’s bargaining team shared the highlights of the proposed contract, and allowed members to ask questions and state their support or opposition. At one point, more than 4,500 of the union’s 6,000 members were on the call, with many reporting they faced technical issues.
A member of the union allowed a Seattle Times reporter to listen in to the audio of the Zoom conversation, and at several points during the call, a clearly frustrated union president Jennifer Matter sparred with members over the union’s bylaws and procedures for voting and debating, calling several members out of order and muting mics.
Members who spoke on the call seemed split; a faction supported a suspension of the strike, while another sizable group of educators complained they didn’t have sufficient time to review a summary of the tentative agreement, which union leadership shared close to midnight Monday.
Why does this point matter? Well, teachers are now somewhat divided and some are very angry with their leadership.
From the SEA Facebook page:
57% is not a strong show of support, and honestly makes me concerned for the mental health of our teachers starting school tomorrow.
It needs to be said: today's SEA meeting was absolutely awful, damaging on so many levels. This is my 25th year as a public school teacher and a union member. Today was easily one of the worst days of my career.
Me too. I feel betrayed by union leadership.
Many are worried that if we start school, then vote no on the TA, and have to go back on strike, it'll be more of a mess than it is already.
Bellevue likely finished bargaining at least a week before the start of school in order to have the whole thing ready for a vote. That's how it usually works but the SPS school board decided to only make a crappy offer and force a strike.
I’m very disappointed at one of our members who allowed a Seattle Times newspaper reporter into our private general membership meeting today. We had members who couldn’t get in because of accessibility/technical issues, yet a reporter, who isn’t a part of the union was in a closed discussion and released private details. Whoever allowed this should be ashamed of themselves.
I'm sped and I feel confident about what my next 3 years will look like. Our bargaining team took a ridiculous, insulting proposal by the district and turned it into a massive increase in resources as well as beneficial structural adjustments.
A big thanks to to union negotiators. It’s not a easy job and we so appreciate all of you!
Thank you bargaining team! You did so much! So many things. I hope you can rest and recharge soon!
Two, the teachers had only a bullet-point summary to read. The amounts for raises seem straightforward but not exactly how Sped and ELL students will be supported. Plus whatever "baseline" for mental health services that the district is offering.
The Times article has some detail but I think you need to see the contract to be sure of what teachers are facing in their classrooms.
Comments
SPS and SEA collude more than they compete.
SP
Empty Pockets
So, what did the strike accomplish during a pandemic? The strike didn't resolve the special education cap issue- which seemed to be the biggest issue. According to The Seattle Times, the district will implement the new special education model and staffing "calculator" will be developed over the next year.
Seattle loves unions. Perhaps some should consider that SEA helped sell-out the teachers. SEA VP and Special Ed representative sat on the Task Force and signed off on special education plan. We are looking at high level decisions- here. Rank and file teachers were denied an opportunity to discuss, show-up at board meetings etc.
Blue Dog
SEA leaders do have a very unhappy base. Even though the vote to end the strike narrowly passed, many of the yes voters were not pleased with how SEA handled the bargaining as well as the meeting.
The larger issue: did SEA cave? Did they accept a deal that was less than they could have obtained? If so, did the bargaining team and leadership do that in part to try and preserve their relationship with SPS leadership? The Superintendent and board majority have made it clear they do not respect SEA at all, whether as an organization or its members. SEA needs to act like SPS leadership is an enemy, not a partner. Their membership recognizes this, and until the leadership does as well then SEA will continue to have these internal tensions.
Teacher Ally
Interesting comment because as this mom sees it, SEA and SPS are way far apart. If they were “partners” kids would not be locked out of schools for 18 mos or miss a week due to strike. Or your definition of partnership is whack.
Disagree
The combative reality on the ground is that the district spends so much of it's time trying to put us in a box and so little time doing all the other things they are supposed to do. Here's a short list:
1. Make sure there is an English curriculum.
2. Every other class has curricula. They don't by the way. What the heck?
3. Use central data mining to create actual useful data that we can interpret and apply at the school level in our Professional Learning Communities.
4. Ensure that money goes to the buildings like fixing decades old barely functional furniture and ensuring we have enough chairs for our students.
When I see more and more highly paid and non-functional low impact central office staff then I get upset. It sets off this "You're gonna pay me because you have so much money to waste" type of situation.
We just want functional, professional, minimal central office and that would SHOW us that the priority is our job which is educating students and not beefing up the echo chamber downtown.
I absolutely hate how adversarial it all is. Can't the Superintendent sit down with the union president and collaborate? SPS HAS to be audited. Find all the money and then shut down all the slush funds and BEX levy hidey-holes and then just be honest. I guarantee educators can come up with clever, cheap, and productive solutions. We do it all the time.
But as long as we have all these layers of lies it's only going to become more of a bloodsport and staff churn already shows that.
I hope this stops.
Theo M.