The skanner., September 14, 2011, Page 8, Image 8

Seattle
Tacoma
Teachers
Strike
RemembeRing
Issues include pay,
class size, teacher
transfer policies
9
11
Hundreds of People gathered at
the Alki Statue of liberty in West
Seattle on Sept. 11 to remember
the thousands of innocent lives
lost 10 years ago in New York City,
the
Pentagon
and
in
Pennsylvania.o
Paid Sick leave for Private Sector
Seattle City Council votes in new requirements, sets precedent
By gene Johnson
the associated press
SEattlE (ap) — Seattle is
set to become the third U.S. city
to require businesses to provide
paid sick days for their workers,
after a City Council vote
Monday that supporters said
could provide momentum for
establishing similar laws across
the country.
The council voted 8-1 to man-
date that all but the smallest
companies - those with fewer
than five workers - give at least
five paid days off a year to
employees who are sick, need to
care for a sick family member,
or who are victims of domestic
abuse and need to take time off
to assist law enforcement or
attend
court
hearings.
Businesses with
more than 250
workers
would
have to provide
nine days.
Mayor
Mike
McGinn is expect-
ed to sign the
measure, putting
Seattle in a league
with
San
Francisco;
Washington, D.C.;
and Connecticut, where a state
law takes effect in January.
Residents of Denver will vote
on a similar measure this fall,
and proponents are pushing for
a statewide paid sick days law in
Massachusetts and elsewhere.
Milwaukee passed a sick-leave
bill in 2008 that was later pre-
empted by the state Legislature,
and this year Philadelphia’s city
council passed one which was
vetoed by its mayor.
Nationwide, 44
million workers do
not have access to
paid sick days,
according to the
advocacy
group
Family Values at
Work. An estimated
145,000 to 190,000
of them are in
Seattle.
“Seattle residents shouldn’t
have to choose between staying
home sick and keeping their
job,” McGinn said in a written
statement.
cery store cashier Natasha West-
Baker, who said that without
paid time off she had to work an
8-hour shift last Saturday imme-
diately after she underwent an
MRI for severe back pain.
“It’s not an OK way to live,”
upscale restaurant Wild Ginger,
said that the measure was one
more factor stacked against
Seattle business owners, includ-
ing the recently hiked down-
town parking rates.
“The city needs to start
embracing the
idea of the
entrepreneur-
ial ideal and
what
that
brings to our
city,” Yoder
said. “Are we
trying to send
a
message
here that the
urban core is no longer impor-
tant?”
Several people also criticized
an exception in the law that
allows the mandated sick time
to be bargained away as part of
collective bargaining agree-
ments.
But a number of other busi-
ness owners came out in favor
of the measure, saying they
wanted to care for their workers
and that the law wouldn’t cost
them as much as anticipated.
Restaurants and bars can meet
the requirements by offering
schedule swaps to accommo-
date the sick time.
The law wouldn’t take effect
for a year, and new businesses
would not have to comply until
they’ve been operating for two
years.
Nationwide, 44 million workers do
not have access to paid sick days
she said. “I’m the sole provider
for a family of five. This is
going to give me the time I need
to be to be healthy and not
worry about whether that day
off is going to cost me the
gas in my car or the food
on my table.”
The proposal drew
opposition from some in
the business community
who warned that it was
bad policy even in the
best of times, and possi-
bly disastrous during a
recession. George Allen,
of the Greater Seattle
Chamber of Commerce,
said that in San Francisco some
businesses had to forego hiring
additional workers or giving out
bonuses because of that city’s
law, which took effect in 2007.
Rick Yoder, owner of the
The proposal drew
opposition from some in the
business community who
warned that it was bad
policy even in the best of
times
Dozens of supporters attended
the hearing, carrying and wav-
ing paper-plate signs that read
“I’m a fan of paid sick days,”
and met the vote with a standing
ovation. Among them was gro-
page 8 The Portland and Seattle Skanner September 14, 2011
tacoMa, Wash. (AP) — Teachers in
Washington state’s third-largest school dis-
trict picketed in front of the city’s major
high schools Tuesday, hours after they over-
whelmingly voted to walk away from the
classroom.
The strike kept 28,000 students at home.
Union spokesman Rich Wood said teach-
ers began arriving at Lincoln High School at
6 a.m. Tuesday. The plan was to have teach-
ers at the city’s four major high schools
demonstrating all day.
Eighty-seven percent of the Tacoma
Education Association’s total membership
voted Monday evening to walk out, after
weekend contract negotiations failed to
result in an agreement, Wood said.
Issues in dispute include pay, class size
and the way the district’s teachers are trans-
ferred and reassigned.
The Tacoma School District planned to
seek an immediate court injunction Tuesday
to terminate the strike, which school offi-
cials contend is illegal, district spokesman
Dan Voelpel said.
Superintendent Art Jarvis will revisit the
decision to keep schools closed in light of
whatever happens in court, Voelpel said.
Both the Washington attorney general and
state judges have ruled that state public
employees do not have the right to strike.
Teachers applauded and waved signs
before Monday’s vote at Mount Tahoma
High School.
District officials, meanwhile, sent auto-
mated calls to parents and staff explaining
their response to the strike.
Tacoma teachers have been working with-
out a contract since school started Sept. 1.
The union and district negotiated Saturday
but couldn’t agree on a contract proposal.
A strike vote at the end of August failed by
about 28 votes. Union bylaws require
approval by 80 percent of the nearly 1,900
members to authorize a strike.
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 responsi-
bilities 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 state and local public employees,
including teachers, have no legally protect-
ed right to strike. That opinion also noted
state law lacks specific penalties for striking
public employees.
During several past teacher strikes,
Washington school districts have gone to
court and judges have ordered 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, accord-
ing 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.
See SEattlE on page 10