UPDATED: Lake Washington support professionals ratify new three-year contract with LWSD.
Lake Washington School District has been actively engaged in bargaining with the Lake Washington Education Support Professionals (LWESP) since May 2019. To help support negotiations, the district requested mediation services from the Public Employees Relation Commission (PERC) in August.
The district and LWESP have participated in eight mediated sessions since August and have continued to exchange proposals.
On January 6, 2020, the district proposal included an average salary increase of 12.8% over three years. The LWESP provided a counter proposal on January 6 that included an average salary increase of 28.1% over three years.
Despite current progress, LWESP notified the media on January 7 that their members voted to authorize a strike. However, RCW 41.56.120 states that classified employees, such as the LWESP, are not legally permitted to strike.
Under RCW 41.56.123, the current contract extends through August 31, 2020, or until a new contract is established.
The district continues to approach each bargaining session in good faith and will continue to consider all reasonable proposals.
-- Shannon Parthemer, LWSD
The "right" to strike is not guaranteed by the State Constitution and RCW 41-56-120 reiterates this. Furthermore, the State Attorney General's office provided a ruling that there is no RIGHT to strike, but the ruling notes that nothing prohibits state employees from striking. School employees CAN strike although they don't have the RIGHT to strike.
ReplyDeleteRCW 41-56-123 states that if/when a contract expires, the terms of the contract stay in force for up to one year until a new contract is signed. Note that the contract is not extended, just the terms. This allows for teachers and staff to continue to get paid so that schools don't get shut down. The LWSD office staff and para-educators contracts EXPIRED on August 31, 2019.
LWSD has stated that employees cannot strike. It also has made the claim that their contracts have been extended through August 31, 2020. Both of these statements are false. However, because the District believes that office staff (LWESP members) and para-educators (Teamsters members) are not allowed to strike, the superintendent and school board have been passive and for the past 4 months have completely ignored the issue.
The McCleary Plan was passed by the Legislature in July 2017 and included pay increases for teachers and staff. Specifically, RCW 28A-150-410(7) states that the minimum compensation for classified staff will be $45,912 per year* starting in 2018-2019. That is $22.00 per hour minimum. The State OSPI gave LWSD additional money to pay teachers and classified staff. The teachers got raises, but the District has not offered pay increases to classified staff. The District minimum is still ~$17.00/hour.
Finals for high school students are next week and the semester ends Friday, Jan 24. If/when classified employees start their strike, it will be at the beginning of the second semester starting on Monday, January 27, 2020. The District seems to be in denial that a strike is going to happen. The main office has been silent on warning parents that the schools will be shut down during the strike and that they need to find childcare. They also need to inform families and the community that the strike may last a long time because the District refuses to bargain.