Ballard teachers join strike for better pay

Meghan Walker Ballard

Teachers across the city are on strike, which could delay the first day of school if an agreement over salaries isn’t reached by September 5.

The teachers’ union, the Seattle Education Association (SEA), voted on Tuesday night to authorize the strike. An increase in state funding means teachers’ salaries will rise – the question is, how much.

According to Crosscut, under the current contract, teachers in Seattle earn between $50,600 and $100,800. That’s less than Shoreline, where under the new adjustment, teachers will make between $62,000 and $120,200.

Teachers in Ballard have joined the picket line, with Ballard High School and Whittier Elementary staff showing their support. Whittier teachers will be out at 3pm today to show solidarity, while BHS teachers have been out first thing each morning before work – it sounds like they’re all hoping school can start as planned next week.

35 thoughts to “Ballard teachers join strike for better pay”

  1. In most places where people go on strike the strikers may be foregoing pay as non strikers may be brought in (scabs to you union people -I was a Teamster in local 66 dairy workers) but generally the teachers just delay their work by starting school later in the year but they still have the ~180+ days of school each year.

    1. Same tired argument. You didn’t have to go to college for 6 years and pay for continued training every year. Put in extra hours off the clock, buy supplies out of your own pocket, deal with mounds of paper work and parents that are convinced that their child is the next prodigy. Takes someone special to handle the demands of a classroom, most wouldn’t last a week.

  2. The teachers are not on strike. A vote was taken to authorize a strike if needed, and authorization was given to strike, but they are not yet on strike.

  3. This is all a big money grab by the teachers unions. Not that the teachers probably don’t deserve it but this McCleary decision has left the unions with this idea that there’s all this new money available and it going to continue to come in, it’s not. We’ll be back to square one in a couple of years.

    1. More money from the state, less from the levies that Seattle voters approved = mostly a wash in funding.

      Ain’t it great that red-neck Tea Party folks from eastern Washington get to invalidate tax levies us liberals voted overwhelmingly to place on ourselves.

  4. nice sign dude…”stop pretending you care”? great attitude.

    these teachers should stop pretending its for the chhiiiillldren. weepy about summer break ending…

    1. Summer break is for students. Teachers’ contracts end. Summer means no income. Summer is second job time for most educators that are unmarried, or married to an educator.

  5. I’m not sure if this is still the case but last time I checked there were no distinctions made on what a teacher is teaching. 2nd Grade teachers were on the same pay-scale as High School chemistry teachers. Is that still true?

    1. Your understanding is correct Matt. Certificated teacher pay in Seattle is determined based on years of experience and amount of education/continuing education credits and has nothing to do with subject/grade taught.

        1. Never will be competitive as a result of pay- industry pays way more. Teachers are teachers because they want to teach (and make a living).

          My friend nick cohen would argue we need to just let the market decide…The all great spaghetti monster market.

  6. I love how all the teachers act like they care so much for the kids. They care more about their compensation. “We want to be at school to teach the kids”. No, you want to be at school so you can get your paycheck.

    1. It’s clear you’ve never met a teacher before. The ones that are just there for a paycheck don’t last very long. The stress level is high and the pay is low.

      There’s plenty of other jobs with better pay and less stress levels than a teacher.

    2. Who on Earth doesn’t care about their compensation? Teachers work their asses off and deserve fair pay. The idea that they’re doing it solely out of the goodness of their hearts is ridiculous. They care about the kids AND their paychecks–two things can be true at once.

    3. Uncle Pete, you’re right. Teachers are so transparent. They just want a paycheck. Money grubbers! We need professionals that sincerely care enough to be homeless and live in Seattle where they get a free ride.

    1. Way back when this state legalized gambling in the form The Washington Lottery, that revenue was supposed to fully fund public education. It’s almost as if they Need to use the kids and homeless people as an excuse to raise taxes. Make sure to vote NO on Jay’s carbon tax scheme this November, because that money obviously isn’t going to go where it’s needed the most.

  8. Today’s young are dumb as thier baby boom hippy parents and killing each other and want it thier way !!!!!! Teachers today don’t deserve Jack !

  9. So after we raise our taxes again who will be left here but teachers and techies? Why not give these folks a home on the lake, $100K/year, a new Corvette and call it good? Didn’t we all just get a property tax increase FOR this? Unlike many, teachers produce nothing tangible. You simply can’t “hold education in your hands” as you can a home or new car or anything else being produced.These teachers are using house money, risking nothing. They WILL get paid. They won’t be fired. There is little to zero competition. They just had 3 months off too. All this and teacher strikes are illegal. And people here will all now get to bitch about how Seattle is unaffordable. Unions and liberals = collusion.

    1. LOL! Most jobs I see don’t produce anything tangible either. I manage people and you see nothing physical leaving the building on any given day. We’re just moving numbers around and getting paid for it!
      I’m sorry your life is so bad dude, but don’t stop with the hilarious comments

    3. So, Scott D., you’re entirely self-educated? Didn’t ever go to school or sit in a classroom? You write well…amazing how you figured that out entirely on your own.

      1. You can literally take an entire 4 years of high school online now. As time goes by it will make less and less sense to pay teachers anything at all.

  10. Apparently indoctrinating children into Cultural Marxism doesn’t pay very well.
    Quelle surprise. Hope you don’t get shot by those Wakandans!

  12. I believe that such a profession as a teacher should be paid no worse than in medicine. It is in America that teachers have one of the highest salaries in the world, but also the high cost of education. And there are poorer teachers who live on a penny and cannot even pay rent. I can only recommend Fit My Money to them where they can get help with paying rent for the first time. I feel sorry for these people who teach rural children and do not have decent pay for it. I think that the higher the level of literacy and education of a teacher, the higher his salary should be.

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