2008 PRESS RELEASES

September 02, 2008

Bellevue Teacher Strike Is Illegal

Bellevue teachers have gone on strike, delaying the start of the school year and leaving parents to scramble to find child care for 16,000 students affected by the action. Aside from the inconvenience, the teacher strike is illegal.
 
In 2006, Attorney General Rob McKenna issued an opinion clarifying the illegality of teacher strikes in Washington state: “In Washington, public sector workers at the state and local level do not have a legally protected right to strike. No right has been granted by statute or common (judge-made) law.” That seems pretty clear.
 
Sonya Jones, Director of the Labor Policy Center at the Evergreen Freedom Foundation, said: “Until the legislature explicitly states otherwise, teachers are considered to be public employees and cannot strike legally.
 
“Aside from the illegality of teacher strikes, the equally hideous reality is that teacher union officials use the threat of a strike to bully school districts into giving them exactly what they want, whether the district can afford the demands or not,” Jones said.
 
According to the Seattle Times , “Although the Bellevue teachers are among the highest paid in the state, they say their increases have not kept pace with those in neighboring districts. The district offered a 1.5 percent pay raise for the school year; combined with a state cost-of-living raise, their actual salary would have increased by 6.6 percent.” Ironically, that 6.6% raise is more than double the current rate of inflation.
 
Why would teachers do something illegal? Because there have never been any real sanctions imposed on the teacher unions who brought about the strikes. In both Marysville and Issaquah, judges issued injunctions forcing teachers to return to work. The fines would have begun to stack up after the courts’ orders were issued if the orders were ignored, but teachers returned to work before that happened.
 
“Union negotiators should not be permitted to hold children hostage and force district concessions with illegal activity. That’s a fine lesson to teach students: if you don’t get your way, threaten to do something illegal,” Jones said.
 

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Nothing in this publication should be construed as an attempt to aid or hinder the passage of any legislation or ballot measure.

Tom Henry

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Deputy Communications Director

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