Strike authorization vote begins Monday for Minneapolis and St. Paul teachers

We could be just weeks away from teachers in two of the state’s largest school districts going on strike.

In Minneapolis Monday, educators arrived at Sanford Middle School early to vote on whether they will authorize a strike.

Educators will vote at sites throughout the city through Thursday, but are not allowed to vote when they are on duty.

“Striking is a last resort, we haven’t even done this move, taking the vote even, in 50 years, not in my lifetime,” said Minneapolis Federation of Teachers President Greta Callahan.

Callahan says the district needs to put students first by having enough mental health supports for them, keeping class sizes smaller, and retaining staff who she says are fleeing the profession.

“When we don’t have enough people to teach our students and when we don’t have enough hourly workers who are willing to work for poverty wages doing some of the most important roles in our schools, something has to change,” Callahan added.

She says she supports teachers, especially amid a pandemic.

“They are exposed to COVID-19 a lot more because there’s a lot of kids and I think the ratios are pretty high, so I think what they’re asking for is reasonable,” she shared.

Minneapolis Public Schools says it is committed to compensating employees with a salary package offer of 20 million dollars over two years, but says the union has requested a two year increase totaling more than 110 million dollars.

In St. Paul, educators will also vote on a strike authorization, their vote happening on Thursday late afternoon and evening.

Both unions plan to publicize those votes Thursday night.

“The time is now to get some of these things shored up and at least retained and maybe even approved upon a little bit, not divest in education which is right now where we’re at with the district,” said St. Paul Federation of Educators President Leah VanDassor.

Educators in the capitol city want the district to maintain smaller class sizes, receive what they call adequate mental health supports, as well as a financial package that will retain educators and bring in new ones.

“They’re (educators) willing to lose money, have days away from school when students are not in school, do all these things to get these things for a student, we’re not taking this lightly,” VanDassor said.

The St. Paul School Board has approved a 1.5 percent salary increase for its 7-thousand employees, but the union is asking for a 2.5 percent increase.

The district says it simply does not have the budget to support the wage increases and increased staff the union is seeking.

If a strike is authorized in either district, there would be at least M 10 day cooling off period before anything could actually occur. Mediation continues during that time.

Minneapolis has said any school days missed would need to be made up and could happen either over spring break or into the summer.

St. Paul is not yet commenting on how a possible strike could impact the school calendar.

Leaders of the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers and Education Support Professionals (MFT ESP) are asking for better pay, smaller class sizes and new COVID-19 protocols – such as assigning specific teachers to remote students who can’t come to class in person due to the pandemic.

Teachers say this has been coming for years, but the tipping point was COVID-19, and they say the district lacks preparedness.

“Really need to see some change for our students now because they cannot wait one more day for safe and stable schools,” said Greta Callahan, the president of the teachers chapter of the MFT. “We need to have students learning, we need plans in place. We need stable staffing. Which really means all the things we are fighting for – whether that is a living wage for ESPs, mental health supports, smaller class loads – we need a plan also for students who are quarantining so they can have an education.”

The union is demanding the district increase pay across the board, especially for education support professionals, from $20,000 to $35,000 a year.

The district acknowledged the last two years have been “incredibly trying”, and they said they are committed to the needs of both students and staff, and in a statement, said:

“We want to reassure both staff and families that MPS continues to be fully committed to two things. First, fairly and competitively compensating our educators and staff, and second, safe learning environments for our students and staff.”

“So much is at stake and I think there’s a real unanimity amongst folks understanding the status quo is not acceptable and we are bargaining to do something significantly different than what is happening in Minneapolis,” said Shaun Laden, the President of the MFT ESP chapter.

Minneapolis Public Schools provided 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS with the following statement and information regarding the strike vote process.

MPS has been notified by the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers (MFT) that they will be voting this week on whether or not the union wants to strike. There is no denying that a strike will have potential ramifications, especially after these last two years of disruptions related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

If a strike is called, MPS will provide staff and families with as much notice and time for preparation as possible. The MPS community can expect the following during a strike:

• All MPS classes will be canceled for the duration of the strike.
• All school time lost because of a strike will need to be made up in order to meet state and graduation requirements. This could mean that the school year extends into spring break or further into the summer.
• Capital building projects and updates currently planned at various schools may be delayed. 
• Graduation dates may be impacted.
• Summer programming may be impacted.
• Student academic progress and access to testing for English Learners will be impacted.

While the MFT has put forth many proposals, the following are some of their key considerations:

1. The MFT has proposed a salary increase of 20% in this year, and a 5% increase next year – which totals $45.1 million for Year 1 and $65.5 million for Year 2 of this contract. 

In addition to their salary proposal, the MFT proposed a significant number of additional monetary requests.  MFT proposals in their entirety represent a 54% increase over their current base salary totalling – more than $168 million (compounded) over the two years of this contract.  

While MFT’s proposals are not fiscally feasible, MPS is committed to fairly compensating our employees within our means with a salary package offer to the MFT of $20.2 million over two years.

• The MFT has further proposed millions of dollars in operational expenses related to COVID-19, expenditures that are not currently recommended nor required by public health experts. MPS has repeatedly been commended by the Minneapolis Health Department for its comprehensive approach to limiting the spread of the COVID-19 virus and we remain committed to keeping our students and staff safe during the pandemic. 

Brief overviews of each meeting are available on our website. 

Our focus going forward will continue to be on our students. While a teacher strike is the last thing we want to consider, we know that we are a resilient community that can and will work together on behalf of student learning.

MPS thanks its families for their patience as we navigate this situation with a commitment to honoring both our students and our educators.