Dear Educators & Allies,

On September 7, over 6,000 educators in the Seattle Education Association (SEA) went on strike. The SEA negotiating priorities are:

1. Supports for Special Education and Multilingual Education

2. Workload, Caseload, Class Sizes, and Control Over Our Work

3. Respectful, Competitive Pay, for the Lowest Paid Employees

SEA educators also struck for five days in 2015. Amongst other things, they won 30 minutes of guaranteed recess time for all elementary schools in the district, the creation of 30 “Race and Equity Teams” in different Seattle Public Schools, and hard caseload caps for the first time for physical therapists, occupational therapists, psychologists, audiologists and speech language pathologists.

Now after two plus years of education during the COVID pandemic, the district forced Seattle educators out on strike again.

Join us for this virtual solidarity meeting to learn about the strike issues and let the Seattle Public School district know that the labor movement and communities in Seattle and around the country stand in solidarity with them!

Speakers:

• Greta Callahan, President of the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers Chapter Local 59

• Tymmony Keegan, she/they, a queer, abolitionist, mixed race, Black and White adjacent human, entering 8th year (was a union and political organizer prior to becoming a classroom teacher) Black Studies, Seattle Education Association* member

• isaura jiménez guerra, Seattle Education Association* member, (they/them/elle) is a queer Mexican American non-binary femme who came into teaching by way of youth organizing and then labor organizing, Ethnic Studies, 3rd year in Seattle Education Association

• Meesh Vecchio, they/them, 19th year teaching, 7th in Seattle Education Association*, Special Education teacher

• Ruthie Smith, she/her, Kent Education Association* member, 8th year teaching High School Science

• Julianna Dauble, she/her, Renton teacher since 2001, activist, organizer and currently serving as President of the Renton Education Association

• Speaker TBD: Rank-and-File member of Chicago Teachers Union*, member of Caucus of Rank-and-File Educators (CORE)

• Speaker TBD: Rank-and-File member of United Teachers Los Angeles*

• Speaker TBD: Rank-and-File member of United Federation of Teachers* in New York City, member of Movement of Rank-and-File Educators (MORE) caucus

• Emcee: Nikkita Oliver, they/them

*Affiliation for identification purposes only

Sponsors: National Educators United (NEU), Seattle Caucus of Rank-and-File Educators (SCORE)

National Educators United