As I was sitting in court earlier this month watching Tacoma schools and its teachers’ union do legal battle, I viewed it as theater.
Compelling theater, for certain. But theater nonetheless.
I knew that when the strike ended, all that was done in court would go away. Despite requests by the school district and stern statements from the judge, no one would pay a fine, no one would be jailed, and no one would be inconvenienced for violating a court order.
That’s not a cynical view but a realistic one based on how teacher strikes in Washington state always turn out. The confirmation appears in one of two documents that enforce the end of the strike, the so-called Return to Work Agreement.
Both sides agreed to dismiss all court actions against the other. The district will not oppose a union request to strike all contempt proceedings against the union leadership and individual teachers. The union also agrees to end its formal complaints about the displacement of individual staff that occurred before the agreement.
See, like it never even happened. All the harm the district said was falling on parents, poor children, the disabled, employees not covered by the teacher contract? Forget about it, your honor.
The teachers who were treated poorly by the district, who were unfairly transferred and displaced? The mutual allegations of bad-faith bargaining? Never mind, judge.
When Pierce County Superior Court Judge Bryan Chushcoff put off any proceedings that would begin to impose fines and even jail time on individual teachers, I called it a victory for the union. Any delay created time for a settlement that would include an agreement to hold everyone harmless.
Not that Chushcoff’s court order and threats of sanctions didn’t change the relationship between district and union bargainers. It was one more bit of pressure. But the TEA knew from the experience of other local unions who lost in court that no fines would be paid.
The agreement even requires they all talk nicely about each other. All sides “will refrain from publicly criticizing the leadership of the other party with respect to the parties(,) the negotiation of the CBA (collective bargaining agreement) or any event materially related to the negotiation of the CBA.”
It also precludes the union from “authorizing, organizing, or otherwise encouraging its membership” to take a no-confidence vote on the leadership of the district. Presumably that refers to the man who was demonized throughout the strike, Superintendent Art Jarvis.
The district even removed from its homepage references to the previous unpleasantries. Information about negotiations and the strike is searchable but not obvious. There are no details of the settlement.
So it was OK to use the tax-supported site to make political points to parents and taxpayers when that was useful to the district but not to provide public information about the issues and the deal. Some details are on weteachtacoma.org but from the union’s point of view.
Apparently the be-nice agreement also means both sides have to say that a mostly status quo agreement is innovative. Even Gov. Chris Gregoire, who banged heads and insisted on real bargaining, called it “pretty impressive” and said it could serve as a model for other districts.
Hardly. It puts off for three years making a new state-mandated teacher evaluation process district wide. It assigns to a committee the task of using something other than seniority to decide which teachers teach where and which teachers get transferred when enrollment at a school declines. One factor that won’t be used is performance since the new evaluation process won’t be available for three years.
More broadly, the contract does little to change the district-union relationship from a confrontational industrial model to a collaborative professional model.
This contract isn’t even as innovative as one reached 13 months ago in Seattle. So if other districts are looking for a model, look there, not to Tacoma.
Peter Callaghan: 253-597-8657 peter.callaghan@thenewstribune.com blog.thenewstribune.com/politics Twitter: @CallaghanPeter
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