Seattle teachers ratify new contract

SEATTLE Seattle Public Schools teachers overwhelmingly voted Sunday to ratify a new labor contract.

Classes that resumed Thursday pending the ratification vote will continue Monday.

More than 3,000 teachers and other school employees voted to approve the three-year contract with the district at a meeting, held at Benaroya Hall.

The ratification vote officially ends the teachers strike, which began Sept. 8 after negotiations with the district stalled. School was scheduled to start the next day for the district’s 53,000 students, but was delayed to last Thursday.

Teachers and other members of the Seattle Education Association picketed and performed community service work for the five school days they were on strike.

The two sides reached a tentative agreement early Tuesday morning, and the union’s board of directors and representative both voted later that day to recommend the contract to the general membership. The recommendation suspended the strike until Sunday’s vote.

The tentative contract needed a simple majority for approval for each of the groups that the union represents: teachers, paraprofessionals and office staff such as secretaries.

As union members walked into Benaroya Hall, a group stood outside and held up signs to show support for teachers. Doug Balcom said they would support the members regardless of how they voted.

“For those who have been feeling like they might say no, we really want them to know we have their back, because that’s a hard decision to make,” said Balcom, whose daughter attends Jane Addams Middle School.

Attendees said members of the bargaining team received a standing ovation at the meeting.

Some union members had criticized certain aspects of the contracts, including compensation a 9.5 percent increase over three years in addition to a 4.8 percent cost-of-living adjustment from the state over two years and special education student-teacher ratios. If union members had voted to reject the agreement, the strike could have resumed.

With the strike officially ended, advocacy groups will now be turning their attention to Olympia, where lawmakers have been sanctioned by the State Supreme Court for failing to come up with a plan to fully fund public education, as required by the 2012 McCleary decision.

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