Some News From Salem-Keizer School District Workers & An Opinion Piece

The Salem-Keizer Education Association has the following notice posted today:

Today, at 6:21 pm yesterday, our union Salem Keizer Education Association declared impasse after 9 long months of bargaining. Not because we want more money, even though what the district had offered us was lower than we had hoped or needed. It’s not about the money.

We all know teachers don’t go into education for the riches and fame. We declared impasse because our district refuses to budge on a few major sticking points: class size caps (30-35 students in a class is too many) and FTE calculations (shifting the definition of full time employment from work load to assigned work time, requiring us to do the work of a full time employee with out the pay and benefits of a full time employee).

And then, we are greeted with this video blaming teachers for “walking away from the bargaining table”. This video is doing exactly what she says she doesn’t want: pitting the community against each other.

So, before you believe what the district is putting out there on social media, please ask a teacher about what is going on. We are not “walking away”, we simply are done being taken advantage of, and we are not giving up on the issues that are important to us and the education of the children in this community.

There is also this response from the union to an anti-union message put out by the Salem-Keizer School District Superintendent (see below):

 

The Association of Salem Keizer Education Support Professionals (ASK ESP) has the following posted:

We have also seen the following posted:

We are still at a stage here in Salem-Keizer when many workers go into union contract negotiations beliving that their employers will cooperate and that the commosense arguments, outrage and dramatic stories that workers know as truth and share with one another will win the day. This is especially evident in the public sector---where a majority of folks in Salem-Keizer are employed---because the logic of public sector work has traditionaly been that workers and management are, more or less, in the same boat and come to work with similar interests.

And then there is reality. Public sector management has taken been taking lessons from the private sector for decades and increasingly comes from the private sector and has been schooled (no pun intended) by groups like the American Legislative Exchange Council. They come to the table with a doubtful commitment to local communities, they go for short-term rewards, they are not opposed to privatization and breaking the system if that will help make their case that the system is failing, they understand how to use workplace and community leaders for their own purposes and they know how to isolate dissident voices politely. They lobby against us. Every crisis is an opportunity for them. And then they move on.

Union and community members don't see the handwriting on the wall and aren't prepared to fight back effectively, and every crisis is made more difficult for us by us having to catch up and grasp how public and private sector employers both understand that their interests are opposed to our own. In between contract negotiations we union members always forget and forgive. 

Our Salem-Keizer School Superintndent was quick to issue an anti-union message on social media, claiming that SKEA is bumping up against reality and that the District wants to meet all of the union's demands and do more but can't. She implies that the union is trying to do harm to the District. This is a common tactic, the intent being to turn the commuity away from the union and bring negotiations into the media rather than keep negotiations where they belong. Just moths ago Superintendent Andrea Castañeda was on a charm offensive, but now the gloves are off. 

But Superintendent Castañeda does have one valuable point. There is a crisis in school, local and state budgets in Oregon and school districts are among the victims of those crises. Most districts can't meet union demands with what they have on hand. The unions have a point as well. Given the crises, why increase salaries at the top? Did no one in a position of authority see this coming?

Labor---all of labor, acting in concert---needs to go on a charm offensive of our own and bring along local political leaders who are struggling to make budgets work. We need a solid people's budget proposal that does away with the kicker, taxes the wealthy, locks in contracting in (rater than contracting out), gets us to healthcare for all, and pressures state and national leaders to put a green new deal and social reconstruction in place. If our Superintendent of Schools and our City Council need a way out and forward, this is it. It's seems totally fair and necessary to me that every elected and appointed public official connected to budgets and decision-making based on budgets and every union leader be expected to advocate for a progressive program that moves us forward and to be held accountable if they don't.

Teachers, school support workers, public and private sector nurses and other healthcare workers, state higher ed workers, homecare workers, and local government workers are all hitting hard times right now. This is adding to political and social tensions before the November elections that we desperately need to win. There is no room right now for divisions on our side of the table. Whatever the divisions that separate us, now is a moment to work horizontally and in every section of Oregon.  

The views expressed here are solely those of the author and do not reflect the views of any union or labor or political organization. Opposing views from union members are welcome and will be posted here.