Tacoma teacher strike leaves 28K kids at home

Directly following a vote to strike, Robert Kroker, right, a math teacher at Stewart Middle School, and Monte Gibbs, a teacher at First Creek Middle School, construct picketing signs at Mount Tahoma High School in Tacoma, Wash., Sept. 12, 2011. / AP Photo/The News Tribune

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.

[krotec54]

Yes, Entrusting our future generation to teachers whom are more concern about their salary commensurate than the responsibility to actually teach our generation an education.
Just look at our Atlanta Public Schools system and that will explain why the jails are full.
Outlaw Unions.

[canislupus16]

Tacoma teacher average pay = $63,793.

To adjust for a comparable private sector full time job (2080 hours/year), divide the $63K by approximately 0.7 (to account for summer vacation, holiday vacations, recesses, etc.) = $91,132. Not bad, and that's AVERAGE! Those with sacred SENIORITY, i.e., tenure, and can't be fired for incompetence or any other valid reason, are earning well into six figures after adjusting for time off.

As for the argument that they do anything extra, most EXTRA work brings a paid stipend with it. I know how this operates from having a friend in the teaching business for 30 years. He milked it.

[jt92202]

Here in Washington State it is ILLEGAL for TEACHERS to STRIKE!!!! After the very lengthy strike a few years ago in Marysville WA that took more than 6 weeks to resolve the courts, state government and the people said NO MORE holding our childrens education hostage! Those kids stayed in School that year until the end of July because the Teachers went on strike!! This was so disruptive and 2 years later they tried it again only to find the court telling them to go to school or they would be fined everyday they weren't in the classroom!

One thing I don't understand is why do their contracts always start and end at the begining of the school year? Just so they have what they think as the upperhand against the School Board! It use to be that people became teachers because they want to be one, now many do because they have the summer off with their kids! I know many teachers here in WA and many of them are way better off financially then most of their neighbors with the same college experiance! When Public Sector employees make more money then the taxpayers do there is something really wrong with the system!!

Maybe if our children were coming out of school with a better education I would feel differently about this but when you teach kids 1+1=3 (as long as you show your work you get full credit) you are not doing a service to the kids, community or the country!

Get back to basic's, teaching reading, writing and Math the rest of the teaching will fall into place!! If you know Math you can learn science, if you know how to read and write you can learn history! If you don't know your basic's, you can't learn anything correctly!!! Take the education away from the Federal Government and give it back to the local communities so they can give the teachers the classes back!! We send our teachers to school to learn how to teach, STOP MICROMANAGING THEM and let them do their job!!!

Then maybe they will decide that teaching is more important than money and they will again put the children first!

[nonpolitico]

The State should follow the example of the late President Reagan who dealt with the Air Traffic Controllers in the 80s.
"Strike and you are fired" he told them. They didn`t believe him.
They were fired.
Teachers have Americas future in their hands. Sad that they do not act like teachers anymore. unions are wrecking the school system with their demands.
Kids who are unable to get their education because of strike action should be able to SUE the Teachers Union!
Also maybe they should face a bit of Reagan style justice too. After all, if they are more interested in their "conditions", than the children`s education, as a larger percentage of kids are struggling with the "3 Rs"..although teachers are horrified these days if you use that "outmoded" term, at least when I was at school and it was in fashion, everyone I knew left school able to read,write, and do math.
Since the 1960s, it seems that for almost 100 years America had it all wrong.
We were not making kids "aware", or telling them about "ethnic sensibilities" oe "sex education" or even telling them (at aged 7) about their "preferred sexual orientation"..(I always thought that orientation was what you used to find your way through the backwoods when hunting).
No, we had been wrong for years. The "New Liberals" brought us "understanding" in schools in place of discipline, they brought us "Conflict resolution", in place of saying "yes miss" or hitting the bully in the nose!
Soon we were looking for ways to introduce a system of social services into school.."counselling" kids instead of taxing their intellect.
Well done teachers unions and brain dead researchers into "education"!We are told that "faith matters", but that knowng how gravity works is not important as it is "only a theory"!
Perhaps parents could take over the teaching jobs, and at the end of term, see what difference there is in the students results.
There could be a big surprise, one that the overbearing unions would not like one bit!!

[goddardr]

I don't know if they can or can't strike, but they can refuse to go to work. If this is the case, then "nonpolitico" below presents an interesting case. Fire them all. Of course, it might be difficult to hire 2000 teachers in a short period and the quality of the teacher would be questionable. Besides, even unemployed teachers might look at the situation and ask if it is worth the $50,000 a year or so (remember, they are likely to be lower seniority and receive the lower pay scale) to work in a school with such divisiveness.

I think the number of teachers to fill holes will soon be small. Too many are looking at the profession and saying it isn't worth the lower pay. Just look at Wisconsin at how much trouble they had in getting new teachers because the number of retirees doubled over previous years. Teachers in training at colleges are looking at other options because they see how salaries and benefits are cut and they are facing $50000 in student loans. It is becoming the worst college degree deal out there.

[imnotimportant]

I'm sticking with the union.

[rightbehind]

Me to.

[MilitaryRetiree]

Remember the Air Traffic Controller strike of 1978 or '79 ? ? ? Regan fired 'em all and started rehiring them without tenure ? ? Start firing these turkey's and make 'em start at the bottom of the list.

[Dreadnut]

Alot of bichin' that teachers are highly qualified, highly educated, and under-paid. So what? Too bad, reality sucks. There's also alot of people pumping frappacinos who hold college degrees. The union will lose this strike, simply because there's no money left.

[jt92202]

There's also a lot of kids coming out of the school system that don't know their basic's! If the teachers are so highly qualified and highly educated why can't they teach their students to be highly educated too? Because they aren't allowed to, they have to teach our children the way the school board and the Fed Government say and that is not giving our children a good education! Our Education Dept is broken, give it back to the State and local governments including the Communities! Some of the brightest people today came from the old school way, Bill Gates, Paul Allen, Steve Jobs..... If the old system can create people like the above it must not have been that bad.

1+1=2 Always has but under the new Math as long as you show your work 1+1 can = 3!! Stop the madness!!!

[luadda22]

by rightbehind September 13, 2011 11:03 AM EDT
Most teachers have Masters Degrees and are way under paid. CEOs have contracts and make considerably more. It's time to break republican ideology.

==================================================================

I don't know of many CEO's that have a Masters in Ancient Greek Mythology that are making the "big" bucks. Especially grade school teachers.

[bobkat258]

Wow. I can't believe the anger some of those posting here feel. Don't any of you have children? Do you send your students to private school? Do you not have any respect for the people who TEACH OUR COUNTRIES CHILDREN everyday?!
I know there may be some issues that need to be resloved, but honestly, such anger makes me sorry for our country.

[nonpolitico]

Teachers who teach our children everyday eh??
Not if unions have less respect for families parents and children.
And the "issue" that needs to be resolved is that, due to unions and Fed Govt, it is OK that teachers strike, OK that some kids leave school WITHOUT BEING ABLE TO READ OR WRITE properly.And OK that tax dollars are being criminally wasted by that mysterious force "officialdom". More crats than students cannot be good for education. Neither can strike action.
All teachers should be held to a "no strike" clause in their contract, then it could well be the case of "3 strikes and you are OUT!"
Are not schools supposed to EDUCATE our children?
Are no Federal taxes being in some way misused if unions have abigger say in schools than their bosses...the PEOPLE!!

[seenoland]

Unions were made for men dying in mines not for government workers fleecing taxpayers. These people are spitting on everything the union movement stood for. Reagan had it right with the air traffic controlers...show up and do your job or you're fired. They didn't show, he fired them.

[realist51]

Unions are unions not made for dying men in mines they were created to establish better pay and work conditions.Why should these people take a cut in pay? these are COLLEGE EDUCATED people with degree's that surpasses anything a general business degree education is. Teachers are typically employed for nine months out of the year,also do summer school and after school activities. have to keep up there education as per CONTRACTUAL AGREEMENTS. not many business's require you to get a masters in a certain field. And too what difference does it make if they are teachers. they are not government employee's they are employed buy there local school districts. and the local board negotiates there contracts. even if they are state employed that does not make them a public SERVANT. your public servants are ELECTED officials.

[Birdman04]

We do not have that problem in the Commonwealth of Virgina. Not saying it it is right or wrong but for about 20 years that is the way it is.