East County Teachers Vote YES for Strike!

From the Occupy Labor Solidarity Committee

MEDIA CONTACT: Bruce Scherer, Oregon Education Association
503-351-3181, bruce.scherer@oregoned.org

PRESS RELEASE – April 11, 2012
Parkrose and Gresham-Barlow Educators
Vote to Authorize Strikes

At separate meetings, members of the Parkrose Faculty Association (PFA) and the Gresham-Barlow Education Association (GBEA) voted in overwhelming majorities to authorize their respective bargaining teams to call for a strike in their bargaining crises with their districts.

Both local union bargaining teams will follow the statutory process and give the district a minimum of 10 days notice before striking. GBEA members announced an April 25 strike date. PFA members have not established a strike date yet.

Jerry Landreth, teacher and PFA member: “For months we have been bargaining with our district over a variety of issues. The district has not been constructive in this process. The district seeks to change our workload and to negatively affect our ability to plan quality instruction for our students.” Additional issues include the Parkrose School District demanding to take $700 out of PFA members’ pockets, per month, for the next five months to pay for the district management’s deficit. This comes out of the district acting unilaterally about cuts to the working school year without bargaining these changes with its employees.

Jerry Landreth: “This $700 per month for the next five months will mean many of us losing our mortgages. This would affect our families. Many of us are living paycheck to paycheck as it is. Many of us are parents in this district. Many of us will not be able to afford living here anymore. That goes too far.”

GBEA members face similar bargaining tactics from their district affecting working conditions. Regina Norris, teacher and GBEA member: “For months we have been bargaining with our district over a variety of issues. Meanwhile the district has taken the strong action of implementing most of its onerous proposal on us. The district seeks to change our workload and to negatively affect our ability to plan quality instruction for our students. The district needs to bring its available resources to the classroom. The district needs to provide for planning time and a reasonable workload to ensure we have the ability to create quality lessons for our students.

MORE INFO:
PFA: On Facebook, search for “Parkrose Faculty Association”
GBEA: www.gbeaonline.org

SPOKESPEOPLE:
Parkrose Faculty Association: Jerry Landreth, teacher
Gresham-Barlow Education Association: Regina Norris, teacher
Gresham-Barlow Education Association: Tom Urbanowicz, teacher

This entry was posted on April 12, 2012 at 11:21 am and is filed under Direct Action, News, Outreach, Solidarity. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.