Teachers vote next week on whether to strike

Everett and Northshore teachers will vote early next week on whether to approve a contract or take a strike vote.

Local school districts are negotiating with their teachers and two of them will take a strike vote next week: Everett on Monday Aug. 26, Northshore on Tuesday Aug. 27.

These area school districts join a wave of others around the state that are nose-to-nose in contract negotiations, hoping to avert strikes this fall.

Labor unrest is the worst in years, due to a penny-pinching Legislature, chronically low salaries and soaring health care costs, says the Washington Education Association, the state teachers’ union.

“The issue of compensation for teachers has reached a crisis state,” WEA spokesman Rich Wood said Monday. “We’re seeing more intense negotiations at the local school district level and the potential for strikes is stronger than at any time since the late ‘70s.”

The union’s “watch list” includes Everett, Northshore, Snohomish, Mukilteo, Issaquah, Bellevue and Eastmont in East Wenatchee.

Teachers are looking for local districts to contribute more for salaries, health insurance and personal leave or teacher-preparation days.

Everett educators also are preparing for a strike, said union president Kim Mead. “It’s getting a little frustrating. It’s certainly cordial and I still have hope,” she said.

The union’s 1,100 members will ratify a contract Monday or union leaders will recommend members to authorize a strike beginning Aug. 28 — the first workday for teachers, Mead said.

Dave Brine, spokesman for the Washington State School Directors’ Association, said his organization is watching the same districts the WEA mentioned.

But he said school board members face tough times and simply don’t have the resources to grant some of the demands.

“I think we’d agree that there is a level of frustration out there,” he said. “It’s not just limited to the teaching ranks. Everybody in education, including those in leadership, is frustrated by the challenges we face.”

Passage of class-size and teacher-pay initiatives may have given voters the impression they fixed all of education’s financial needs, but “we’ve run into this wall of the recession and downturns and the Legislature has made adjustments to education budgets,” Brine said.

Diana Hefley writes for the Herald in Everett.