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Volume 114
Number 21
November 1, 2013
Portland, Oregon
Teacher strike looms at
Portland Public Schools
Several hundred teachers, parents, students and supporters rally outside the
headquarters of Portland Public Schools leading up to a Oct. 21 school board
meeting to show support for the Portland Association of Teachers. The district
is demanding concessions in the union contract, which could lead to a strike.
By DON McINTOSH
Associate Editor
Portland Public Schools (PPS) —
Oregon’s largest school district — ap-
pears to be headed for a teacher strike.
Oregon law says public employers
have to negotiate with a union for at
least 150 calendar days. Often in the
past, bargaining between PPS and the
Portland Association of Teachers (PAT)
continued many months beyond that
minimum. This time, almost exactly
150 days after bargaining began April
18, PPS chief negotiator Brock Logan
told PAT he would no longer meet face-
to-face with them after Oct. 9. The dis-
Carpenters Food Bank closes its doors
The Carpenters Food Bank handed
out its last food box Oct. 18, ending a
30-year run serving needy families in
the Portland metropolitan area.
The food bank, which started in
1983 to assist striking and out-of-work
union Steelworkers and Carpenters, has
been handing out food boxes longer
than anyone has been employed at the
Oregon Food Bank, noted Dean Alby,
community food program director for
the Oregon Food Bank.
That’s not the case with the core
group of volunteers.
Retired Steelworker Ted Totten, 83,
and his wife of 62 years, Ann, have vol-
unteered at the food bank since its in-
ception. So have co-founders Mike and
Sandy Fahey. Sandy passed away in
July, and Mike, a retired executive sec-
retary-treasurer of the Portland Metal
Trades Council, said donations had
slowed. On top of that, the Carpenters
Union building that houses the food
bank is for sale. The Carpenters Union
donated space in the basement and paid
for all the utilities. The building is lo-
cated on the corner of North Lombard
Street and Brandon Avenue in Portland.
Totten said several of the original
food bank volunteers have died, and
others have physical ailments that pre-
vent them from working.
“I’ll tell you, it’s what’s been keep-
ing me alive,” said Totten, who has un-
dergone three back surgeries.
Totten estimates that he’s spent
more than $20,000 out of pocket for
gas, tires, and maintenance on his
truck, which he uses to pick up food
supplies and deliver food boxes. “It’s
the only reason I need a truck,” he said.
At its peak, the Carpenters Food
Bank distributed 850 food boxes a
month. Most recently it was handing
out 700 boxes a month. And the food
boxes were some of the best in the city
— nearly 70 pounds of dry goods,
frozen vegetables, and some type of
meat or poultry.
Alby said the Oregon Food Bank is
coordinating with other food banks in
the area in an effort to fill the void that
the Carpenters Food Bank leaves in the
community.
Ted Totten, a retired member of Steelworkers Local 330, has volunteered at
the Carpenters Food Bank since its inception in 1983. The food bank shut
down last month. Its last day was Oct. 18.
trict moved to the next legally-required
step — mediation. In mediation, a state-
appointed mediator shuttles back and
forth between bargaining teams, seek-
ing agreement. One mediated bargain-
ing session took place Oct. 14, and fur-
ther sessions with the mediator are
scheduled for Nov. 4 and 5.
Under the law, 14 days after media-
tion begins, the district could declare an
“impasse” and move to impose its con-
tract proposal on 2,975 teachers, librar-
ians and counselors, who would have to
either accept those terms or strike.
Teachers are in no mood to accept
the district’s terms. The district pro-
poses to remove limits on teacher work-
load and class size, require teachers to
pay 100 percent of health insurance pre-
mium increases, eliminate pay scales
that reward additional training, and give
wage increases of 1 percent, less than
inflation.
Advised by a $15,000-a-month con-
sultant, the district has adopted a belli-
cose posture. It has lawyered up, waged
a public relations effort against the
union, and refused to discuss a union
proposal to limit class size.
“We don’t want to go on strike, but
the board is forcing the issue,” Grant
High School chemistry teacher Bill
Wilson told participants at a PAT rally
before an Oct. 21 school board meeting.
Wilson — who has served as a member
of the union bargaining team three
times before — says this time the dis-
trict is taking a “minimalist” approach
to bargaining: meeting only the mini-
mum 150 days, and refusing to discuss
subjects it’s not required by law to dis-
cuss. The law says the two sides must
discuss “mandatory” subjects like
wages, hours, and working conditions,
and may discuss “permissive” subjects
like class size, curriculum, and evalua-
tion criteria. In July, Logan presented
the union a legal memo listing all the
items that PPS now considers “permis-
sive” subjects of bargaining and refuses
to discuss, including many longstand-
ing provisions of the union contract,
which the district insists be deleted.
When PAT negotiators tried to discuss
those items during bargaining, Logan
would raise his voice and threaten the
union with legal action.
“Sitting down at the table was not
yielding movement toward an agree-
ment,” said PPS spokesman Rob
Cowie. “The district felt having a me-
diator come in and reach an agreement
was the right next step.”
PAT President Gwen Sullivan said
mediation can help parties go the final
mile toward agreement, but in this case,
the two sides were far apart on major
items when PPS ended direct talks.
Here are some of the key flash points:
•COST-OF-LIVING INCREASES.
In principle, cost-of-living raises protect
worker buying power against inflation.
But Portland teachers have gone with-
out cost-of-living increases in three of
the last five years, losing ground to in-
flation that has averaged 2 percent a
year. PPS started out proposing no cost-
of-living increases at all for the next
four years, but later increased its offer
to 1 percent a year for the next four
years. A separate unit of 1,200 school
clerical and support staff represented by
American Federation of Teachers
(AFT) agreed to 1 percent raises in a
two-year agreement reached in August.
In September, PAT learned that PPS
gave its administrators raises ranging
from 5 to 10 percent. Now PAT is pro-
posing 11.2 percent over two years, a
figure Sullivan says matches raises
given to some administrators.
• STEP INCREASES. Portland
teachers are paid according to a salary
schedule that rewards years of experi-
ence and additional education. Under
this “step” system, teachers with a mas-
ter’s degree start at $42,794 and receive
annual “step” raises until they reach the
top salary after 12 years — $64,199.
Teachers also move to the next pay
scale for each additional 15 graduate
credits they earn (roughly the equiva-
lent of a term and a half of full-time
study). PPS is proposing to eliminate
the “Masters+15” and “Masters+30”
pay scales, so that teachers wouldn’t get
the education-incentive increase until
they reached 45 credits, the coursework
equivalent of a doctorate degree. PAT
disagrees.
• HEALTH INSURANCE. Like
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