I am Against Teacher Strikes, Suspicious of the Teachers Union, and I Support Teachers

We’re in a wave of labor unrest. In May 2023, the writers went on strike. In July 2023, the actors joined them. In September 2023, the auto workers also went on strike. In November 2023, Portland teachers went on strike. A few days ago, the Salem-Keizer Education Association declared an impasse in contract negotiations. After the bruising month-long Portland teacher strike, I now see teacher strikes in a different light. I view teacher strikes as qualitatively different from other worker strikes. Why? 

• An autoworker stops making cars and this hurts auto executives. 

• A teacher stops teaching and this hurts children.

In a teacher strike, there is no executive sitting in a corner office, complaining about lost profits. There are kids on playdates and kids at bubble tea shops. There are kids at home on screens…lots of screens! There are parents using up vacation time to care for their young children. There are kids with unstable home lives who “use school like a light” and rely on school for a measure of stability. And there are kids with special needs at home, kids who receive essential services at school.

During the strike, I heard the sentiment, “What’s good for teachers is good for students.” The strike started on November 1st and school did not reopen until November 27th. Striking in the middle of the school year and keeping schools closed for a month was not “good for students.” Would I feel differently if the strike happened in the summer before kids returned to school? Totally. Would I feel differently if the strike had only lasted three days? Certainly. 

The Portland teachers union also worked against students’ interests during the pandemic. After teachers were prioritized for the vaccine, the union fought against reopening schools. According to Eder Campuzano, “union leaders wrote that they oppose the district’s reopening timeline, claiming white and affluent families will be best poised to send their children back to school.” They argued that reopening schools would shift resources away from students of color and those in low-income households. My children are Native American and we were desperate for a return to in-person instruction. That said, I resent the union using equity as a rationale to keep schools closed. Reopening schools should have been the first priority after teachers were vaccinated. The union’s push to extend the length of remote schooling was not “good for students.”

The Portland teacher strike also laid bare how much power the teachers union wields in Oregon. During the strike, union leadership kept insisting that “the district has the funds” even though their proposals went $200 million dollars above what the district could afford. A week into the strike, the governor sent in her chief financial officer, who confirmed that the district’s numbers were correct (and the union’s numbers were far off). The governor said, “I expect both negotiating parties to use the information provided by the CFO to update their proposals and get students back in the classroom.” Governor Kotek should have said, “What the hell, teachers union, you’ve kept 40,000 students out of school for six days, and you don’t even have your numbers right?!” I wondered if the teachers union’s $389,106 donation to Kotek’s 2022 campaign was related to Kotek’s inability to scold the union.

During the strike, a teacher told me, “If you don’t support the teachers union, then you don’t support teachers.” I have great respect for public school teachers. I want teachers to be well-paid and have fair working conditions. I also know that Portland schools have many problems: Class sizes are too big. Behavioral challenges are enormous. The buildings are old. The stress on teachers is too high. Administrator salaries are higher than teacher’s salaries. Even so, I take a nuanced position: While I value and respect public school teachers, I am suspicious of the Portland teachers union, and I question the tactic of teacher strikes. 

And I’m not the only one who is critical of the November strike. A member of the union's own bargaining team, Steve Lancaster, critiqued how the strike unfolded. He accused the union president, Angela Bonilla, of acting unilaterally and unnecessarily prolonging the strike. Lancaster also questioned the timing of the strike. It looked like union leadership wanted the legislature to swoop in and give the union all the money it was demanding, but the legislature was not even in session in November. Lancaster thought it would've been beneficial to wait until February when the legislature was actually in session.

If the teacher’s union wanted parents to stand up for schools, the November strike was not the way to do it. Union leadership: The $200 million was never there and the transformational change that you promised teachers was not achieved. Teachers: Parents are supposed to be partners with you in our children's education. While many parents supported you on the picket line, a sizable number of parents did not. Many of us didn’t feel like your partner during the strike; we felt abandoned and betrayed. 

Instead of striking, the union should have mobilized parents to lobby for more education funding. We would have gladly fought tooth and nail alongside you. Teachers, please don’t close schools to obtain better pay/working conditions. The burden of closed schools falls squarely on the shoulders of children and kids don’t deserve that. And this particular cohort of kids truly didn’t deserve it, having already endured a year of remote schooling.