This is by no means a complete description of the strike, but hopefully can give you some sense of how these things can go so that you know what to expect during your own strikes.
Background: Two unions, the teachers and the ESP (education support professionals) are on strike together. Issues include: lack of physical and mental health and social worker support in schools for students, ESP starting yearly pay around $24,000 with no set cost of living raises, expanding class sizes (often 40+ in classrooms built for 30) with no contractual limits, teacher pay lagging behind other districts with only about 2% total raise over the last decade. All of these issues are leading to great educators and many of our students leaving the district, and hugely impacting the quality of the education students can get. As an educator it’s demoralizing to see the kids you serve suffer because of lack of support and your colleagues getting burned out.
Having the 2 unions together has honestly been a great opportunity for solidarity between them, but the management negotiator teams are attempting to divide us along those lines, by claiming that they can support one and not the other (and neither to the full degree that they need).
Another educator demand is that the district do more to retain teachers of color. The majority of Minneapolis students are not white, but most teachers are. Efforts to attract teachers of color are often stymied during layoffs because those with the least seniority are the first laid off, negating any positive recruitment. Negotiators are using this to divide teachers along racial lines as well, offering to trade retention efforts for pay increases for all teachers.
The administration has been dragging out the negotiation process because they know that the closer they get to April 1st, the more fearful union members get about losing their health insurance. Having health insurance tied to your employer means that they can literally hold your family’s lives as bargaining chips, and they will not hesitate to do so.
Manipulating Public Perception. They also seem to understand that a contract negotiation is not just between two groups, but is also a public relations/political event. Parents are understandably upset that their kids aren’t in school, and the district has done everything they can to make them blame teachers. This Friday the negotiators came up with a tentative agreement(TA), which only became available to union members to vote on today. This TA is pretty weak and the unions’ members would be right to vote it down imo. Nevertheless, the district sent a message to all parents that school would resume Monday, before any vote took place. Why is this important? If the educators vote it down, suddenly it’s their fault that parents need to change plans yet again, shifting more pressure against the union.
The district also used the laziness of the media really effectively. Most local and national media outlets are repeating the administration’s line that a deal is reached and it’s really favorable for teachers, despite the fact that there is no deal yet. Many of our local news sources have fewer reporters working on weekends, so they rushed to publish without checking in on the union membership view.
Offers of short term gains, with few structural issues addressed. Many of the offers in the most recent TA are short term changes, like payments written in terms of bonuses instead of pay increases. These one-time payments of a few thousand dollars each are taxed at a higher rate so less money in workers’ pockets, and seem more like a bribe to end the strike without fixing the structural issues that are slowly draining our schools. If agreed to, this contract would be over in 2 years with the district in a much better negotiating position because it seemed like they gave a lot during these negotiations, even though we would be in nearly the same position as before the strike once these items expire.
Of course, while frontline workers fight for student supports and wages that keep up with inflation, the top-heavy administration never has to put their salaries on the line. We could more effectively work towards better student outcomes if those at the top shifted their priorities, but it’s clear that structurally they choose not to: the average admin salary is above $100,000, the central district office has air conditioning while most schools do not, and on and on.
Hopefully this post has been informative and helpful for others who are or will be in a similar situation. If you want to support your fellow workers on strike in Minneapolis I strongly suggest you give to any of the strike funds below. The school-specific funds can more immediately go to workers who need it, especially those who were getting paid the least to start with (they’re about to get their first $0 check, so it’s timely). I’ve also linked the general strike fund which can go out to any of the schools but might take more time to reach people (as it’s more work to divide it up between multiple sites with varying needs).
General strike fund: https://www.mft59.org/strike-fund
Funds for specific schools (gofundmes, paypals, or venmo links that I’ve confirmed):
Olson Middle School venmo: @ OlsonMFT59
Cityview ESP fund: https://www.gofundme.com/f/cityview-esp-strike-support
Marcy School ESP fund: https://www.gofundme.com/f/marcy-esp-strike-support
Roosevelt HS fund: https://www.gofundme.com/f/roosevelt-high-school-educator-strike-support
Riverbend school workers fund, venmo: @ RiverBendStrikeFund
Nellie Stone Johnson school fund, venmo or paypal: @ NSJSTRIKEFUND
Washburn HS venmo: @ washburnstewards
Anishinaabe/Sullivan academy venmo: @ anishinabesullivan
A whole bunch of others in this twitter thread: https://twitter.com/tc_solnet/status/1506804879150485505
Full disclosure, I am not a union member, but was until last year so I’ve been paying close attention to the negotiations and doing my best to support my former coworkers holding the line. I’ve tried my best to explain the situation as best as I understand it, but am open to corrections by people who are closer to the action.