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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (April 4, 2014)
A LOOK-BACK AT THE ALMOST-STRIKE Behind the startling reversal at Portland Public Schools: As strike neared, district faced unified teachers backed by broad public support By DON McINTOSH Associate Editor On Feb. 18 — two days before a strike by the Portland Associa- tion of Teachers (PAT) was to begin — 10 months worth of conces- sionary demands by Portland Public Schools (PPS) melted away. Though teachers made one significant concession, it was the dis- trict’s position that wavered in the final hours, and teachers are call- ing the resulting contract an unmistakable union win. To assess how that happened, the Labor Press talked in the weeks following the settlement with Gwen Sullivan, PAT president; Adam Sanchez, Madison High School social studies teacher and PAT’s lead external organizer; and Steve Buel, PAT’s one consistent ally on the PPS school board. Portland Public Schools — Oregon’s largest school district — took a hard line in bargaining from the very beginning. Starting April 2013, the district demanded concessions, and offered no im- provements in exchange. The district insisted on eliminating the previous contract’s workload provision, which limited high school teachers to 180 students. It proposed to eliminate step pay scales that rewarded additional training. It proposed to require teachers to pay 100 percent of health insurance premium increases above a cer- tain cap. And it offered a wage increase of 1 percent (well below in- flation), increasing its offer to 1.5 percent after six months of bar- gaining. Meanwhile, PPS refused to consider proposals to reduce class size, which PAT members considered their top priority. PAT proposed that the district reduce class size by 5 to 10 percent, which would require 175 additional teachers be hired. PPS said it didn’t have to negotiate about class size, under Oregon law, and even threatened legal action when teachers would bring it up at the bar- gaining table. APRIL 4, 2014 And yet 48 hours before 2,900 teachers were to walk out, the district dropped all those demands. Instead, PPS committed to hire at least 150 new teachers (50 in high school, 70 in the lower grades, and 30 in special education). It agreed to increase prep time for elementary school teachers from 185 minutes to 260 minutes per week — which also means addi- tional librarians and other support staff will be hired. It committed to consult teachers first before adopting new textbooks, and to give teachers greater academic freedom to determine which support ma- terials and methods to use in day-to-day instruction. Rejecting the NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS methods of corporate-styled education “reform,” PPS agreed that student scores on standardized tests will not be considered in trans- fer, layoff, salary or discipline decisions. The district will continue to pay 93 percent of health insurance premiums. And keeping up with inflation, it agreed to three annual raises of 2.3 percent, retroac- tive to July 2013. “These are really significant victories,” said Sanchez, the Madi- son High School teacher. “And I don’t think they would have been won without us preparing to go on strike and without immense com- munity and student support.” Teachers did make a couple of concessions. They’ll have a little less discretion in transferring to different schools — one round of in- ternal hiring, compared with two in the past. And more dearly felt, teachers with less than 15 years in the district will give up an early retirement incentive after September 2016, in which the district pays up to five years of health insurance before retirees become eligible for Medicare at age 65. “Our membership knows loss of the early retirement incentive is a significant concession,” Sanchez said, “and I don’t think anyone in PAT is tiptoeing around that.” And yet, Sanchez and Sullivan say, the contract in its entirety is a significant win for teachers, at a time of few union victories. “The district asked for 75 concessions, and wanted to erase 30 pages of our contract,” Sanchez said. “That strategy totally and ut- terly failed.” “They underestimated the unity of our teachers coming together,” said PAT president Sullivan. Sullivan said the union wouldn’t have taken a strike vote unless its leaders knew there was broad support, (Turn to Page 10) PAGE 5
