Bargaining Brief 11.14
Your bargaining team had a very productive day. We began the day with a sidebar with the district bargaining team where our team asked clarifying questions about the district’s interpretation of the financial implications of our offers and theirs. The district also provided updated supposals on four articles. Of these four, we were able to provide counters on two and two are ready for tentative agreement.
We ended the evening by presenting a package proposal for settlement and to return our students to safe, sustainable, and equitable schools. The changes we proposed will close the gap between PPS’ and PAT’s proposals by $121.6 Million over the life of the 3-year agreement while maintaining the six priorities that are most important to PAT members.
Here is the proposal package we presented today.
11/12 Bargaining Update
Both teams met to exchange Mediation Supposal Packages at 10:30 this morning. At the urging of our mediator, we spent much of yesterday preparing a comprehensive package that narrowed the scope of our proposals to focus squarely on the issues of highest importance, while attempting to address the interests of management that we could agree with. Management’s team was tasked to do the same. Based on the proposal we received from them this morning, it would seem that management is completely unwilling to meet the needs of educators and students. What was offered is at best tokenism and at worst out-right insulting.
In order to make sure that members and the public know about the key differences in our bargaining packages, we created a side by side document. Please click here for a side-by-side comparison of PPS district management and PAT’s most recent packages along with the consequences for both students and educators if we accepted the current district package as is.
We believe you and the community expect PPS management to do better. As professional educators, we will continue to hold the line until we achieve justice for ourselves and our students. After bargaining every day since November 3rd, your bargaining team will attend pickets and rallies tomorrow to connect with members. We are scheduled to continue bargaining on Tuesday, but are always on standby and available to meet at any time during this process.
11/9 Bargaining Brief
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Thank you to the many students, families, members, and other supporters who joyfully and peacefully supported educators today at the Fire Fighters’ Association Local 43. We are grateful to the Firefighters for hosting the recent bargaining mediation. We are also incredibly energized by your continued passion on the line. Please be assured that your bargaining team is working continuously to ensure a fair and transformative contract. This afternoon, both parties exchanged mediation package proposals that sought to address identified priorities. The PAT proposal showed that we are bargaining in good faith on the issues of importance to management, and included a package of our articles that maintain our demands for significant improvements in:
District management passed a package proposal as well. The good news first: Talks on special education are continuing; Management has shown some movement in the right direction in the area of grading/planning days; and, for the first time in the 11 months of negotiations, they began a discussion related to class sizes. Now for the bad news: Management’s proposal around class size and workload relief offers only token improvements in class size and makes them temporary. Their proposal on weekly planning minutes remains far below the minimum they can easily commit to, would offer no improvement for the vast majority of educators, and might actually lead to a reduction in planning time for middle school educators. Their proposal on mental health makes nothing more than an empty promise. Finally, there is NO movement on COLA. Today was progress, but nowhere near what is needed to reach a fair settlement. We will stay at the table, look for compromise where it is possible, and unflinchingly continue to demand a REAL change from the status quo. In the meantime, your direct action and the support of our community will ensure that management is responsive to the needs of educators and the students we serve. For leave of absence issues: submit your questions here. & Click here for information about financial supports. |
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In Solidarity, Your Bargaining Team Steve Lancaster, Chair Ryan Olds, OEA Staff |
11/8 Bargaining Brief
Your PAT Bargaining Team spent the day developing proposals that we hope can lead to a fair settlement, which centers the top priorities of educators, students, and families, as well as addressing many of the priorities we heard from our board members.
We were in contact with the District team via our mediator and received proposals on Article 9 (Student Support, Discipline and Safety) and on our new Special Education article that left us underwhelmed. The actionable improvements to environmental safety remain absent. Management’s proposal continues to reverse the progress we had made, and we find it particularly unsavory that management is holding back improvements in Special Education in order to achieve more management power over educator transfers.
Tomorrow, we fully expect to see proposals from management that directly address class sizes. This is one of our top priorities and thus far, management’s only response to our demand to bargain over class sizes has been “no.” Once we begin to address class size, we are hopeful that it will be possible to make genuine progress.
We believe that any hope for a quick end to these negotiations will require the continued face-to-face presence of school board members. This will ensure that both parties' needs and concerns are fully heard and understood. We look forward to meeting with them tomorrow at the bargaining table as well.
Your direct action on the picket, messages to the board, massive presence at rallies and the incredible support of our students, parents and community are making all the difference. The message is clear - our community wants and needs what we want - fully supported teachers and schools that are able to meet the needs of the whole child. We will stay at the table and on the line until we have a contract that helps these goals become a reality!
For any other questions check out our updated FAQ
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For a splash of joy check out our special guest at today's rally, the No Drama Llama (but he's actually an alpaca).
In Solidarity,
Your Bargaining Team
Steve Lancaster, Chair
Francisca Alvarez
Samara Bockelman
Julia Fogg
Thea Keith
Charity Powell
Ryan Olds, OEA Staff
Angela Bonilla, President
11/7 Bargaining Brief
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Today your Bargaining Team met face-to-face for several hours with our Superintendent, as well as School Board Members Herman Greene & Gary Hollands to describe the major issues that must be resolved to achieve a fair contract that delivers real improvements from what has become an untenable status quo. These issues are:
We also took time to listen to the issues of key importance to our Board. Michelle DePass joined Directors Hollands and Greene at the table for this part of our discussion. PAT Bargaining Team members joined President Bonilla at this evening’s School Board Meeting to hear our students, community members and union partners express their concerns and support for our shared vision of great public schools for all. The discussions today in the bargaining room and at the public comments portion of tonight’s School Board meeting were honest and, we hope, will now lead to a long overdue breakthrough in our stalled negotiations. It is our expectation that tomorrow the district’s bargaining team will now produce a comprehensive proposal on ALL of the issues that matter most to educators and the students we serve. Your PAT team will also be working tomorrow to prepare a package of proposals that we hope will address the issues raised by the board and bring us closer to a fair settlement. We know we will not reach a settlement without the district providing concrete, legal proposals on our six priorities. Stay strong on the picket lines. |
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In Solidarity, Ryan Olds, OEA Staff |
Bargaining Brief, 11/6/23
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After three long days of continuous bargaining, bargaining team members were excited and reinvigorated to be able to join YOU, our fellow educators and incredibly supportive community members who were holding the line this morning in front of your schools and participating in regional rallies. We started bargaining with PAT President Angela Bonilla meeting directly with Superintendent Guadalupe Guerrero. The conversation was civil but there was a clear disagreement and distance on how resources are used in the District, District finances, and the urgency for settling this contract and getting our kids back in school. The District continues to show no urgency. We are still bargaining for you today. Yesterday, your bargaining team worked diligently to integrate detailed language to operationalize improvements to two of your top priorities (student support & health & safety) in Article 9. We also presented an updated proposal on Special Education, another top priority of the membership. At around 8pm, we received a partial response on Article 9 in regards to the student support and discipline and were told that we’d receive a response on the safety portion of Article 9 tomorrow morning. Here is a safety side by side so you can see what your bargaining team provided to the district management team yesterday. This afternoon we presented detailed proposals to the district bargaining team that included updates to Articles 6 (work year) and 7 (workday), with very clear model schedules that demonstrate how the minimum planning minutes that are needed for workload relief can be achieved this year. We are impatiently awaiting a response from the district bargaining team that shows they are ready to seriously consider our proposals and produce some type of response to our demands other than the insultingly dismissive “proposals” we have seen thus far. We know you will be picketing at your school sites & knocking on neighborhood doors. Remember, the recent polling OEA conducted found nearly 90 percent of Portlanders support teachers striking for smaller class sizes and recruiting and retaining high quality educators like you!. We will see you at the School Board rally at 5pm. |
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In Solidarity, Your Bargaining Team Ryan Olds, OEA Staff |
Bargaining Brief 11/5/2023
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We showed our power this week and the country took notice of our fight for our students! Our picket lines and rallies grew stronger every day. State lawmakers wrote the district and told them to refocus their priorities. We showed the district that our community stands behind our demands for public schools. Monday is as important as ever. We need every member on the picket line to support our bargaining team, stand up for our students, and push the district to settle at the table. Now is the time. What tomorrow looks like: MORNING PICKETS REGIONAL RALLIES |
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In the News... |
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Bargaining Brief, 11/5/2023Hello Educators, We understand, agree with and have shared the sense of urgency that has been shared by PAT members and has also been echoed by other community members, including our governor and state legislators. We advised the mediators that the only path forward would require the district bargaining team to come with clear proposals and actual contract language for the issues that are keeping you on the line and away from your students:
We spent the morning refining our proposals around Article 9: Student Support, New Article for Special Education, and Article 9: Physical Health & Safety. The team has also developed a response to PPS’ a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) on Sustainable Community Schools. When our team was informed that the district team had a proposal for planning time, we were tentatively hopeful. However, we were enraged to see that the proposal the district offered would increase our workday, add a work day to the year as a district-directed PD day, no additional planning days, increasing the number of PLCs in Elementary schools, enshrine the CSI/TSI training days they currently misuse and an inconsistent increase in weekly planning time. They then had the audacity to ask us to pause the strike. Their behaviors and proposals show that our demands for the school board members to step in is the ONLY way to reach a settlement. If you want to look at our current contract proposals, you can find them HERE. Saturday, Directors Patte Sullivan and Julia Brim-Edwards were at our bargaining location. Today, we saw Director Scott in the halls during bargaining. We need them at the bargaining table, playing an active role, to end this Strike. Without significant improvements on our priorities, the strike continues. One day longer, one day stronger. Rain or Shine, we walk the line. |
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Please continue to join us daily on the picket line and at the noon regional rallies across the city. Together, we will show our solidarity and our commitment. Together, we are unstoppable! Your Bargaining Team Ryan Olds, OEA Staff |
Bargaining Brief, 11/4/23
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Today your Bargaining Team met with management in several topic specific discussions; specifically, workload relief related to class sizes, increased planning time, improvements to environmental safety and student supports. We were disappointed that we received no concrete proposals. We are concerned that the pace of bargaining is closer to what might have been appropriate six months ago. The District Bargaining Team isn’t showing the urgency to settle this contract that is needed to open up our schools. We need to see written proposals from management, most notably on workload relief, as soon as possible if we are to see a pathway to settlement. We will be bargaining again tomorrow. We continue to believe the School Board must enter the bargaining process as soon as possible if we are to get a settlement anytime soon. Please be ready next week to participate in picket lines as we increase the pressure and attempt to obtain a settlement. |
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In Solidarity, Your Bargaining Team Ryan Olds, OEA Staff |
Bargaining Brief, 11/3/2023
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Bargaining Brief 11/2/2023
On November 1st, your PAT Bargaining Team was walking the line with you at our schools and attending the rally at Roosevelt High. Today we were privileged to stand before all the members at the rally in front of the District offices. The solidarity and energy we experienced was overwhelming. We are humbled to be your representatives at the table and acutely feel the responsibility with which you all have entrusted us.
For months, the District bargaining team has dismissed our proposals and been unresponsive to the stories about the conditions in our schools. They didn’t believe we really spoke for all of you when we described workloads that are crushingly high, educator directed time that is way too low, and the many student needs that are going unmet. Neither did they believe that we would strike over these issues. To be fair, collectively we have been filling in the gaps for so long, why should they dedicate resources when they can count on educators to just do more and more and more? On November 1st, 2023, we collectively said: ENOUGH! We have given all we can give. We and our students must be supported NOW!
You may be wondering why we have not been at the table today or yesterday. Make no mistake, your team stands ready to bargain the second management brings a proposal that demonstrates they are FINALLY ready to bargain over your issues. However, we have lost any confidence that the current PPS bargaining team will bargain in good faith. Nor do we believe our Superintendent can be relied on to help move his management team toward engaging with us. It was not until a strike seemed to be imminent that Superintendent Guerrero attended bargaining, and it appears his contribution to the process was to pen a letter asking PAT to delay going on strike. If Superintendent Guerrero wished to avoid a strike, he should have gotten involved in bargaining months ago and joined with us in solving the many problems we aim to address in our proposals.
It now seems clear that we need the ultimate decision makers at the table. When we initially proposed inviting Board members directly into the process, district management told us unequivocally, “no.” We believe the direct participation of the final decision makers are needed to quickly find a resolution. Having no confidence in the District team, we call for members of the School Board to become directly involved in negotiating a fair settlement. We believe, and have confirmed with the state mediator, that Board members have the power to attend bargaining and, therefore, they should exercise this power now to assist in quickly bringing a resolution.
We are told that management will be prepared tomorrow morning to meet with us. Let’s hope the last two days have made management realize the only way to get schools back open is to fully support the people who teach and learn in them. Now that they understand this, they must bring an offer to the table that guarantees class size limits, more planning/grading time, mental health supports and a cost of living adjustment that allows educators to live in the city they serve. We and our students deserve nothing less.
This is not a moment, it’s a movement. And we need to continue to make our demands until they are met.
We will see you again tomorrow on the picket line! Picketing will begin again at 7:45 a.m. at every school in Portland. Please start at your designated picket location so that we can ensure every spot has representation.
Substitute educators should report and sign in at any location. The citywide rally will take place at noon at Lincoln High School. Bring your walking shoes since we will be marching through downtown. Invite your community to join us so that we can highlight the size and might of our support!
IMPORTANT REMINDER: You must check in each day by finding your strike captain and scanning their unique QR code. The form will ask for your address—you must enter this information in order to qualify for your strike relief and receive payment.
If you have questions, please reach out to your strike captain for information. You can also read some of our FAQs here.
When teachers are respected and schools are funded, our students thrive. Tomorrow we will be back at the bargaining table to advocate for a contract that secures a strong future for Portland communities. The fight continues!
In solidarity,
Your Bargaining Team
Steve Lancaster, Chair
Francisca Alvarez
Samara Bockelman
Julia Fogg
Thea Keith
Charity Powell
Ryan Olds, OEA Staff
Angela Bonilla, President