
The Seattle Education Association recently threatened a strike after getting a 10.5 percent pay raise last year. The Kennewick teachers union, likewise, has disrupted the start of school for children with its pay demands.
On May 8, the Oregon Education Association lead a statewide strike in what it called a “Day of Action.” Walkout marches organized by the largest teacher’s union in Oregon will take place in Portland, Eugene, Klamath Falls, Medford, Bend and Salem.
United Teachers Los Angeles, the union representing the city’s 30,000 teachers, spent nearly two years in fruitless negotiations with the Los Angeles Unified School District culminating with a week-long strike that finally ended on Jan. 22.
Emboldened by the recent UTLA strike, the Oakland Education Association (OEA) is planning its own strike within the next two weeks. Once a strike vote has been passed, which could happen as soon as this coming Monday, Oakland teachers will abandon their classrooms and take to the streets.
With the union representing Los Angeles teachers finally agreeing to a new three-year contract with the school district, those who’ll actually be picking up the tab for it are getting their first look at the finished product.
For the first time in nearly 30 years, United Teachers Los Angeles has voted to authorize a teacher strike. The 650,000 students of the nation’s second-largest school district will not be in class during a time where student outcomes are plummeting.
Now that teacher strikes orchestrated by the Washington Education Association are behind us, it’s worth examining how to prevent students and families from having their school year similarly upended in the future. The ferry system may hold the answer.
Widespread strikes and labor unrest instigated by the Washington Education Association have disrupted educational services for many thousands of students and families. Strikes by public employees are illegal in Washington, so why do public school teachers go on strike anyway?