—ON THE PICKET LINE—

Maggie Trowe, Editor

5,000 Seattle teachers strike
for smaller class size, pay hike

SEATTLE — More than 5,000 teachers, aides and other school employees represented by the Seattle Education Association went on strike here Sept. 9, the first day of school.

The teachers’ demands include smaller class size, higher pay, cost-of-living increases and more funding for public schools. They oppose the Board of Education’s proposal to lengthen the workday with no pay raise.

Picket lines were up at every school and spirits were high, buoyed by support from parents, students and others in the community.

Kathy Oglesby, a retired teacher who was on the bargaining team in 1985 when the teachers last struck, was on the Mercer Middle School picket line with her daughter and grandson, who attends the school. “It’s a shame that it comes down to this again. We are standing up for the kids. It’s the same issues as before.”

“I really feel for the new teachers,” Sultan Mohamed, an art teacher for 22 years, told the Militant. “Many have to work second jobs just to pay their bills. We must show the school board we mean business.”

Matt Carter, a special education teacher at Franklin High School, said students and others had brought food to the picket line and even offered to do child care for picketing teachers. A local Domino’s donated 20 pizzas. “This strike is not just over pay,” said Brian Black, a history teacher at Franklin. “We are concerned about excess testing and the inequities in the system that affects minority students.”

—Edwin Fruit

Grain millers in Iowa rally against concession contract

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — More than 100 members of Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers Union Local 100G and supporters rallied outside Penford Products Co. here Sept. 4 to demand Ingredion Inc., Penford’s parent company, withdraw concession demands and negotiate a contract.

The 160 workers at the plant — which produces potato starches, corn sweeteners and ethanol — have been working without a contract since Aug. 1. “We rejected the company’s ‘last, best offer’ by 95 percent because they were asking for more than 100 concessions,” Local President Chris Eby told the rally.

“I know what it’s like not to have a union,” Ironworker Kris Baker said, recalling working as a nonunion construction worker before joining the Ironworkers. He came with fellow unionists to show support.

Local 100G Vice President Matt Maas said this was the second informational picket line the local had organized, “and don’t expect it to be the last if the company continues to refuse to give us the contract we need.” A group of workers were listening to the speeches during their break across the street at Penford and waved in support.

—Jacquie Henderson and Josefina Otero