Seattle teachers' approach in contract fight drew on broad, community-based issues
Margaret Gingrich, a second-grade teacher at Montlake Elementary school, carries a picket sign as she and other members of the Seattle Education Association, the union that represents striking teachers from the Seattle School District, file into a meeting hall, Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2015, in Seattle to discuss a tentative contract agreement that was reached with the district Tuesday morning, the fifth day of the strike. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)
SEATTLE — Striking Seattle teachers whoreached a tentative contract deal tapped into the concerns of the community to win unusual concessions: guaranteed 30-minute recess for elementary students and teams created to address race and equity in schools.
The dispute that delayed the school year for 53,000 Seattle students by a week reflects a strategy shift by teachers nationwide to take on broader issues that promote the public interest, experts say.
"Teachers are positioning themselves to be about much more than raising their own pay," said Bob Bruno, a professor of labor and employment at University of Illinois who closely follows teacher issues.
They are "moving the bargaining away from the worker-centered economic interest to the broader defense of education. It's not just the contractual dispute that we have. We want to use the collective bargaining process to improve and protect public education."
However, pay was a big sticking point as teachers who have gone six years without a state cost-of-living raise complained about expenses skyrocketing while the city's highly paid technology sector booms.
Teachers argued for better pay, fair teacher evaluations and reduced workloads, but they also tapped into community protests over too much testing, not enough recess and concerns about racial disparity in discipline and student performance. Many had complained that some schools only had 15 minutes of recess and that low-income schools were the most affected.
"By focusing on issues like recess, race equity and too much testing, they really highlighted the fact that their contract bargaining is about quality education for all kids," said Wayne Au, associate professor of education at University of Washington Bothell.
Jonathan Knapp, president of the Seattle Education Association, which represents 5,000 teachers, specialists and support staff, said the union took a new approach to bargaining, working closely with parents, communities of color and other unions.
"Educators are deciding that they need to really stand up and be the advocates for public education," he said.
Students will start school Thursday, after union leadership voted to suspend the strike that began Sept. 9. The full union membership will vote on the tentative contract Sunday.
"We are grateful to both bargaining teams for working literally through the night to resolve differences," district Superintendent Larry Nyland wrote in an email to families Seattle teachers' approach in contract fight drew on broad, community-based issues | OregonLive.com: