Updated with additional details.
A Pierce County judge this afternoon said he found the labor dispute between the Tacoma School District and the Tacoma Education Association “very distressing,” but he declined to sanction striking teachers for defying his order to return to work. But Superior Court Judge Bryan Chushcoff said he would consider sanctions – and making them retroactive – at a previously scheduled Sept. 27 hearing. Those teachers identified as defying his order then “are at risk,” Chushcoff said. The judge, a graduate of Tacoma’s Wilson High School, signed a temporary restraining order Wednesday that requires teachers to return to work at least until the Sept. 27 hearing. The vast majority of Tacoma Education Association members defied that order Thursday and today, reporting to picket lines instead of to school for the fourth straight day. They voted to strike Monday night after contract talks broke down. The school district’s attorney, Shannon McMinimee, told Chushcoff this afternoon that teachers were openly defying his order and deserved to be sanctioned. “They are out of compliance with this court’s order. The teachers are striking. That’s a fact,” McMinimee said. She suggested fining the Tacoma Education Association as an entity and its individual members to force their compliance. The union’s attorney, Tyler Firkins, said that wouldn’t be fair. Firkins argued ordering sanctions against union members without giving them a chance to defend themselves in court violated their rights to due process. He suggested Chushcoff wait two weeks to hold a full-blown contempt of court hearing so he could make an informed decision about what the sanctions should be and who should receive them. “We simply ask for a fair opportunity,” Firkins said. McMinimee said the union was stalling. Giving them more time was akin to allowing them to “hold a gun to the district’s head” during contract negotiations, she said. Chushcoff said he was not happy that the teachers remained on strike. It is sad for Tacoma, the judge said. He also said he wouldn’t be patient forever. Allowing teachers to defy his order without consequence would erode the rule of law, Chushcoff said. But he said he agreed with Firkins that teachers accused of being in violation of his order had a right to defend themselves in court before he sanctioned them. Chushcoff asked McMinimee if the district could provide a list of union employees who did not show up to work Thursday as he ordered. McMinimee said the district could and would. Chushcoff also ordered both side to produce at the Sept. 27 hearing all offers and counter-offers made so far during the negotiations. The judge said he was prepared to release those documents to the public in an effort to dispel rhetoric about which side is being intransigent during bargaining. “We’ll let the light of day disinfect all that,” Chushcoff said. He also ordered the union to provide financial statements and bank records – which he said he’d file under seal – for the last six months. Chushcoff did not say exactly why he wanted to look at those records.
Union member Susan Matson, who picketed outside the courthouse during this afternoon’s hearing, said she was willing to risk sanctions by continuing the strike.
Matson said a fair contract that addresses teachers’ concerns about district transfer policies was worth a possible fine or jail time.
“We do not come into this lightly,” she said.
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