Union Takes Teachers’ Strike ‘Temperature’ Association Plans Course Of Action If Legislature Denies Pay Raises

The Spokane teachers union is asking members if they’d join a “mini-strike” if lawmakers refuse to give them a significant salary boost.

More than 1,200 teachers received a survey Wednesday asking how far they’d be willing to go if the Legislature ignores their pleas this session.

Several West Side districts conducted similar polls and discovered most teachers would be willing to strike. A separate survey of Central Valley teachers showed 65 percent of them would be willing to participate in “some type of collective activity.”

“This is simply a temperature check,” said Lynn Jones, president of the Spokane Education Association, which represents District 81 teachers. “This is not a call to action. From my perspective, this would be a very, very last resort.”

Some Spokane teachers say they wouldn’t hesitate to walk out if they don’t get a substantial raise.

“It’s time the state legislators got a wake-up call,” said Mike Greenwood, biology teacher at Lewis and Clark High School. “Teachers have been losing money at an alarming rate.”

Washington Education Association president Lee Ann Prielipp said teacher raises haven’t kept up with the cost of living. The organization has told legislators that teachers want a 15 percent pay increase over the next two years. That’s how much ground they’ve lost since 1992, when considering cost-of-living increases, she said.

Teachers are asking for more than either Gov. Gary Locke or the state schools superintendent have proposed. Locke has recommended a 4 percent increase over two years; Bergeson has proposed about 10 percent over two years.

Starting teachers now make $22,900. The most recent salary increase teachers received was a 3 percent cost-of-living adjustment in 1997.

Educators have been invited to a Senate Ways and Means Committee work session next week to talk about salaries.

Several districts surveyed members, asking them if they would engage in some form of strike if the session ends without significant salary increases for teachers, Prielipp said.

“There was no question that compensation is the No. 1 issue and the members are willing to do whatever it takes,” she said.

Teacher contracts forbid strikes while the contract is in place, Jones said. “But if everybody does it, it’s pretty tough to legally prosecute every teacher in the state.”

Jones said he’s unaware of other school districts in the county doing any polling.

Maureen Ramos, the union’s vice president, said it’s difficult to even think about letting down parents and children by leaving the classroom.

“When I received that (survey), I stepped back from it. I left it in my mailbox,” Ramos said. She said she isn’t sure how she’ll respond.

John Robbins, a history teacher at Shadle Park High School, said he’d agree to a work slow-down short of a strike. Some districts have talked about “sickouts” in which some teachers come to work and some don’t, Robbins said.

Teachers aren’t aiming their criticism at local districts, but rather at state lawmakers, who set a statewide salary schedule for teachers, Robbins said.

Eighty-eight percent of Lake Washington School District’s 1,500 teachers in King County voted to take “some kind of strike action” if they don’t get a substantial pay increase, said Kevin Teeley, president of the district’s education association.

Median home prices in his district are $360,000 - out of the price range of most teachers, he said.

“A second-year teacher cooks off a hot plate and uses a toaster oven. She can’t afford to live anywhere but above a garage,” he said.

Teeley, who has collected survey data from several districts, said 65 percent of Central Valley teachers agreed to “some type of collective activity.” Of those, 79 percent said they’d prefer a strike of some kind, Teeley said.

Spokane teachers agree they are underpaid, but because living is more affordable in Spokane, Jones predicts most Spokane teachers polled won’t be willing to join a strike of any kind.

“I don’t think that issue is as large here as it is elsewhere,” he said. “We can afford to live in the district we teach in.”