Portland, OR teachers go on strike

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The strike, the first in district history, comes after a 10 month stalemate during which district and union leaders were unable to agree on even basic budget realities. How long the strike might last is unknown, though sources have pegged the likely duration as three days to two weeks. Teachers will lose their health insurance for December if they do not return to work by mid-November.

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There is a yawning gap of at least $200 million between what teachers are seeking and what the district says it can afford without having to make deep and painful cuts in the years ahead, whether through layoffs, fewer instructional days, closed schools or a combination of the three. The two sides will not meet again to negotiate until Friday, which means schools will close Thursday too. Friday was already a day off for students and had been scheduled as a teacher professional development day.

Union leaders say teachers need large raises to keep pace with inflation, class size limits to allow them to meet students’ academic and emotional needs in the wake of the pandemic and more planning time to adjust instruction to widely varying achievement levels.

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The district has offered cost-of-living-adjustments that would boost teacher salaries by nearly 11% over the next three years, plus $3,000 bonuses for first-year teachers and special education teachers. That represents a modest gain from the district’s original offer of a 7.5% cost of living raise over three years, but it is still only about half of what the union is seeking. And on Tuesday, district officials offered an extra 40 minutes per week of planning time for elementary school educators, up from the current 320 in the current contract and the 400 minutes that they had previously put on the table.

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