Minneapolis Teachers Strike, Week Two

Minneapolis teachers remain on strike, going into the second week. This has received way too little coverage in the media (granted Russia’s actions have taken the headlines for good reason). Let’s see what’s going on:

Officials with the Minneapolis Public Schools and Minneapolis Federation of Teachers traded proposals and counter-proposals over the weekend, but a deal to end a strike by the MFT remains elusive. 

On Sunday, groups chanted outside of MPS headquarters in north Minneapolis as both sides met in long bargaining sessions.

“We’ve got to get class size caps in the contract, mental health supports in the contract, we need living wages for our hourly ESPs and we need competitive pay for our license folks,” said Shaun Laden, president of the education support professionals chapter of the MFT. 

The union is also looking for raises for teachers and a more sustained effort to retain teachers of color. 

“We are hemorrhaging educators. I keep saying this. We cannot keep the people in the building and our students need stability,” said Greta Callahan, president of the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers. 

Again, the teachers have quite reasonable demands–reasonable class sizes, mental health care for kids, living wages, help to recruit and retain teachers of color–who can disagree with this stuff? Other than rich single people who don’t care and school administrators of course. It also seems the food service workers are about to join the teachers as the Minneapolis school district goes full hard ass on its unions:

Minneapolis students have been eligible for daily meals from the district, but food service workers are in tough contract negotiations of their own. 

Members of SEIU Local 284 have already authorized a strike, but the union has not yet filed the required 10-day notice to call one. Union leaders said negotiations ended late Friday without a deal.

“Following the overwhelming strike vote, we did see some movement from the District, but we still aren’t close to where we need to be to make up for years of underinvestment in these frontline, essential workers,” said Kelly Gibbons, executive director of SEIU Local 284, in a statement Friday evening. 

The union represents around 200 food service workers.