Seattle Teachers Strike for the Public Schools Seattle Students Deserve
Back to school time for most communities across the U.S. puts students and teachers back in the classroom charting a course for the next ten or so months. Yet one collective of courageous educators put their community building exercises on hold to form picket lines — collectively withholding their labor for the schools Seattle students deserve.
In the days before the school year was to begin, the Seattle Education Association (SEA) (for the first time in thirty years) unanimously voted to strike for fair compensation, secure working conditions and a decrease in high-stakes testing. SEA teachers also demanded the establishment of site-based teams to address the gross inequities and institutional racism for which the Seattle Public School system is notorious. The strike lasted six days before being suspended on Weds Sept. 16, 2015; school started across the district on Thursday Sept. 17. (For more on the strike check out the post of the eleven reasons why the Seattle Teachers Strike was important in the struggle for quality public education.)
No mincing of words, the strike is the number one tool teachers have at our disposal in the interests of our students, their families and the entire bargaining unit. It is what the Seattle Teachers Strike for the Public Schools Seattle Students Deserve | CLASSROOM STRUGGLE: