Strike Support 101
Hello, Sac! You’ve probably heard by now that there is a real risk of a teacher strike starting on Wednesday. I thought I’d take a moment to walk through some of the logistics of what that could mean for Sac families and staff.
Although the teachers union (formally the Seattle Education Association, or SEA for short) voted on Wednesday to authorize a strike, that doesn’t mean that a strike is a certainty. If SEA and the district can come to an agreement by Tuesday then school will start as planned on Wednesday, Sept 2.
If not, well…we’re looking at a strike. If you agree with rumors—and in this case, I personally do—a strike is likely. In that case, both our Sac staff and our fellow Sac families will need support. Here’s how we can all help each other out.
But first, a fun fact: SEA doesn’t just represent teachers! They represent a majority of SPS staff–about 6,000 of SPS’s roughly 7,500 employees. The union includes certificated teachers & substitutes, paraprofessionals like instructional assistants, office staff, and family support workers, and a bunch of lesser-known roles like the craftspeople who do musical instrument repair for the district! SEA does not include principals and custodial staff, who are represented by their own separate unions.
Ok. Back to the main idea:
How you can support Sac staff during a strike
In the event of a strike, staff will be picketing on the sidewalk outside of Sac. This has a few implications for folks who’d like to support the strikers:
Staff need water/food/restroom support. The building will be locked with no access for staff. Seth and I live very close to the school and we will open up our house and yard as a rest/refresh station, as we did in 2022. Community dropoffs of bottled water, coffee, snacks, and so on are extremely helpful in making this successful.
In 2022, support donations were strong for the first several days and then tapered significantly. So if you can’t help out immediately, please don’t hesitate to jump in a few days later (if it comes to that)!
Staff could use moral support. Sac is on a quiet street with minimal traffic. Picketing without an audience can get tedious quickly. We can all help by stopping by and joining the picket line, even if it’s just for an hour. Wear red in solidarity for extra credit.
Take this opportunity to talk with staff about what’s at stake in the negotiations, or just get to know them a little more! You’re encouraged to bring your kids, too (but please do not leave them unsupervised).
If anyone wants to get extra creative, consider dropping off fun supplies like sidewalk chalk, bubbles, or a set of homemade picket line Bingo cards. Use your imagination. Anything that adds some joy to a day of marching in the sun will be welcome!
Some staff will need childcare. Teachers who are also parents to SPS students will need childcare in order to join the picket line. Many of our Sac students will need care as well. Read on.
How you can support families during a strike
The obvious primary need families will have is childcare, particularly for families for whom care is necessary to allow parents to work.
If you’d like to help me organize a childcare pool, please let me know! I’m not sure yet what this might look like. Maybe it’s a signup page where folks offer and accept half-day or full-day slots of watching a handful of kids? Maybe it’s some kind of swap situation where folks trade days? Maybe we can gather together a handful of parents who can watch a group of kids in the park for a day (again, Seth’s and my restrooms are available to support this)? I’m open to ideas.
At any rate, if you or a family you know will have childcare needs because of a strike, please reach out to me and I’ll see if I can connect you with someone from the community who can help. Same goes for folks who have the ability to watch an extra kid for a bit.
I believe that there will be a small handful of Boys and Girls Clubs open in the event of a strike, but that Sac’s won’t be one of them. Families enrolled at Club for this coming school year should have already received an email about this.
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A final note: Everyone will probably have a keen, ongoing desire for information in the event of a strike.
The picketing teachers are by far the best source of union information. The district generally stays quiet about their side of negotiations, but they will tell us when school is postponed and/or when the first day of school will be. I will be keeping myself up to date as well, and I’m happy to answer any questions as best I can (advocacy@sacpta.org, or feel free to text me if you have my number).
I will not, however, be writing about the progress or content of negotiations here.
The PTA must remain officially neutral on bargaining issues, so you won’t be hearing any opinions about the actual negotiations on this blog. The PTA’s role here is to support families and staff disrupted by a strike and to encourage both sides to come to an agreement that is in the best interest of students & staff.
See you on Wednesday, either at the dropoff line or the picket line!