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Albany, Oregon Teacher Strike Special! (with Liz Craig, Dana Lovejoy and Voices of GAEA)
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Something (rather than nothing) Podcast presents a special STRIKE episode from Albany, Oregon.
SRTN gives you an up to the moment report on the brave educators of The Greater Albany Education Association (GAEA) who have been on strike for five (5) days as of this episode’s release.
GAEA is fighting for student safety, lower class size and a wage that recruits and retains high quality educators.
Click here to support GAEA:
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Transcript
Introduction to Albany Teacher Strike
00:00:15
Speaker
This is Ken Vellante with the Something Rather Than Nothing podcast. In this episode, we have a special report from the front lines of the Albany, Oregon, the teacher strike, a Greater Albany Education Association.
00:00:36
Speaker
Just a little bit of context, to personal history. I've worked with this local personally. as a union rep for almost a decade, this brave and courageous local that has grown leaps and bounds day by day. um During this episode, you'll hear the issues at stake in the strike for everybody ah in the system. You'll hear some sounds from the strike and inspiring chants that that keep people going.
00:01:06
Speaker
And just really wanted to thank you for listening to this very special report about the brave strikers, workers, educators in Albany, Oregon. Thanks for listening.
Safety and Class Size Issues
00:01:19
Speaker
and
00:01:24
Speaker
down all the This is Ken Vellante, and we're here with Liz Craig, the president of the Greater Albany Association of Classified Employees. and I've been privileged and happy to call Liz a friend and ah and a fellow unionist. and in in All the things um ah that you have listeners have heard about the about the situation in Albany, about such stark issues of
00:01:58
Speaker
a safety in the classroom, um class size, and um those type of day-to-day working conditions issues. ah Classified employees, ah so everybody knows, they're also called education support professionals ah within ah the National Education Association.
00:02:21
Speaker
are your ah food service workers, ah custodians, administrative assistants, instructional assistants, have different names, paraprofessionals, some trades, and basically all the people that ah keep the school buildings going, who make them, ah build them and and maintain them and feed our students.
00:02:46
Speaker
um So, the teachers are out on strike right now, and so I wanted to to ask you, Liz, obviously, you know you work in the same environment. um Can you say why ah the Classified Association ah has been so supportive of the the teacher strike and um the issues that they're still bargaining?
00:03:11
Speaker
Well, they are our issues, essentially. When they're talking about class size, they're talking about safety. Those things directly impact us as we are trying to support our students and our fellow educators every day.
00:03:26
Speaker
When it comes to um issues of ah staffing, and that's been a big has been big topic, um and I've heard the teachers talk about this, um ah not only proper staffing amongst teachers and in and staff or programs, but also for ah classified
Staffing Shortages and Cleanliness Challenges
00:03:44
Speaker
employees. We're talking about um custodians. ah Many folks can easily remember the pandemic and um all the heightened concerns around um Cleanliness and particularly in the early days um ah There so um a group that's like really ah really been on on the front lines and um Have had to deal with a lot of um changes in students ah student behavior um in the classroom a lot of um some of the learning loss or the loss ah that students lost of social emotional ah learning academic um and and otherwise, how have you seen these changes impact um the work that your members do from day to day, say over the last three or four years? When we look at custodians right um and talking about cleanliness, people often will think about COVID. But what we have all the time, we have schools that get shut down,
00:04:50
Speaker
all over because of things like norovirus. And so we in our district hired a ton of extra custodial staff to do all this extra cleaning to keep the COVID away, right? But the reality is if we don't have enough staff, like we currently don't have enough ah staff to keep our schools clean, it's not just COVID. It's rashes and there are other communicable diseases that we need to be worried about.
00:05:18
Speaker
um As far as behavior goes, we have a new system in our district um where previously we had our behavior kids in one type of classroom. We had our communications and autism kiddos, depending on their impact level, separated um with kids who had the abilities within that same
00:05:48
Speaker
that same level of ability, I guess. um And now what we're seeing as we're moving into a different kind of inclusion model is we have kids with different levels of um autism as far as their abilities go in with kids who are struggling with a lot of trauma-based behavior issues.
00:06:08
Speaker
And what is much harder now is where we had classified staff who focused solely on behavior. That was that was their craft. That's what they were good at. That's where they could be the most impactful. And then we had the other side. We had like PCAs who were dealing with our kiddos who were autistic and needed a certain kind of care. Now that everyone's kind of all thrown into the mix, no one's really feeling like they're being super effective in furthering the individual student's ability in their educational career here. So what we're seeing now is everyone's feeling very overwhelmed, very
00:06:51
Speaker
um They're not feeling like they're making a lot of strides before, you know, we get into education because we want to help kids. So if you're not feeling like you are making these big strides and being a big impact in students' life, your job isn't very fulfilling. So now we're having a harder threshold of work environment every day.
00:07:12
Speaker
People are dropping out, people are just, they're finished. They can't put up with the nonsense every day. They're not getting help, the overworked, overburdened, underpaid, all of those things. And now you're not even seeing the growth that you are able to give these students.
Economic Struggles of Classified Workers
00:07:29
Speaker
It's just not worth it for people anymore to show up.
00:07:32
Speaker
Sounds like a ah crisis situation. And I've worked closely with union members like yourself. um And you know we don't want to yell out the word crisis, right? um But the just the amount and the stresses on the system have had a significant impact on folks. And we're talking um safety, we're talking about staffing. But Let's be real here. What about money? I mean ah i know in the last contract and negotiated that there were significant ah advances in wages that were necessary, um that were fought for, ah that were needed. um But you know a lot of our folks
00:08:16
Speaker
experience economic insecurity, um particularly through the inflation we've seen lately, um housing costs. I don't have to explain this to anybody you know or any of the listeners. um and so Even with those significant gains, we find a lot of education support professionals, classified ah workers,
00:08:41
Speaker
not having the means to survive or to provide ah for their family. What do you think is the what do you think is the best ah the best thing that um can be done about the issue of compensation for what I view as essential workers in the school system? State funding absolutely plays a huge part in this. um Most of our classified, when we pulled them, have two or three jobs.
00:09:10
Speaker
and That's often with even another spouse. So if you think about if you ever want to be a classified employee who happens to be a single mom of even one kid, I mean, forget about it. You're you're definitely having two jobs. McDonald's and Panda Express, they all pay better than we do. and People will say, yeah, but they don't have the benefit package, right? Okay, we do. We have a good insurance. If you can afford the copay, you know who can't afford a copay is a classified employee who is already working two jobs and does not have a $20 to $50 copay. So is that is that really a benefit to them? No. but No, most of them qualify for ah the Oregon Health Plan, right? and so
00:10:00
Speaker
we We have to do better all around. this I mean, this is nationally, right? Just we are working our butts off in the classrooms every day as well alongside our our teachers. And the amount of work that we put in to our craft versus our pay, like it just doesn't add up in just about anywhere. Washington, I think, would be the closest. But um we just need to do better.
00:10:31
Speaker
nationally to pay all classified, all ESP, a better wage, something where you can go home and be a human being to your own family after you work your one job. NEA has a slogan, you know, one job should be enough. That's 100%. One job as an educator should be an enough.
00:10:50
Speaker
yeah because it's a very difficult job to to to do as well. um Yeah, thank you for that. I i also work with a lot of groups, including part-time community college faculty who have a great ah precarity, obviously wages better than generally classified employees, but a great precarity of working at two or three different institutions and patching together a salary ah and in in in doing that work. So um in some of the groups I work with, seeing that economic precarity, see what inflation does to ah to a paycheck, and of course, I believe ah in the power of collective ah bargaining.
Reasons Behind the Teacher Strike
00:11:37
Speaker
um ah Just any final thoughts on this ah historic ah strike ah by the Greater Albany Education Association? ah any any Any thoughts about this this moment and um the stance that the teachers have taken?
00:11:56
Speaker
It's sad. There's no educator around who is like, I want to be out there in the pouring rain, freezing cold while our students are at home, not learning. that's not I don't know anybody who wants to do that. I mean, the it's sad around here. I've talked to people all day. um Even at the rally, people are crying.
00:12:19
Speaker
It's not something that people take like heartedly and jump into it. What they are doing here, it's hard, but it is so important. We have to have safety in the classroom. We have to have class size, you know, call it a cap. I don't care what you call it. We have to have some matrix that says how much can one human being handle?
00:12:45
Speaker
it what that number is, I'm not going to say I'm the authority. But we have to put these things down. That way, everybody can be accountable to what it is whatever the policy is, right? To say, oh, we're going to shoot for this. Well, I know in our district, we when we were shooting for 17 to 19 kindergarten, some classrooms ended up with like 28 or 29 kindergartners.
00:13:10
Speaker
I mean, what are we really asking people to do every day? We want to educate children. Well, how are we educating them if we can't do anything except for help kids tie their shoes all day long and you know not getting any classroom support? there The assistants aren't in the classroom to help. I mean, it's it's not a reasonable expectation of what is asked of educators these days.
00:13:31
Speaker
and their GAEA is doing the right thing for our students. yeah yeah One bit of wisdom in my experience of working within labor and I don't know if a lot of you people realize this. and I certainly know management doesn't realize this. I have spent a quarter century having the most the tense, happy, intimate conversations with members who are in trouble or is there's something going on in their life or there's a work issue or there isn't one or they get aggressive, mean boss. and There's one thing I spent my life doing is trying to get educators to stick up for themselves and to stick up for themselves collectively. and It's tough because you're tired and you don't know how to do it or maybe your union is not the way you want it or or anything like that.
00:14:23
Speaker
But if there's some way I could convey this to folks or to to management as a whole, you have to piss off educators, teachers so much on a strike that they are going to do the thing that they were least inclined in the universe to do, which is not tend to their students.
00:14:48
Speaker
It is part of my union work working with educators and I respect the heck out of everything that they do. But to think that an educator takes stepping away from their student lightly, there isn't something that is more untrue that ah that that I know of and borne by experience. So my main point is when you see a teacher strike,
00:15:10
Speaker
take it seriously and take the issues that the employees are talking about seriously. You don't have to believe everything you say or everything like that, but really spend some time and listen to what they're talking about. Because if they're squawking, they ain't happy. So um thank you, ah Liz Craig.
00:15:34
Speaker
stand united One Union for the students of Albany School.
00:16:08
Speaker
Hey, this is Ken Vellante with the Something Rather Than Nothing podcast. Special strike episode ah this time. Albany Teacher Strike is happening as this episode ah is released and I have a a deep history with the area, but I want to jump i want to jump right to it. I have the great pleasure to talk to a friend of mine, a union activist leader for years and years, the president of GAEA, Dana Lovejoy. And I'm going to get right into it with you, Dana. um
00:16:43
Speaker
Four days of striking in the books. You've been at the bargaining table, you're the president, you're the bargainer. A lot of folks, this episode's going out, won won't know where Albany is or or why this strike. Can you give them a sense of oh why the teachers are on strike here and where things are at to kind of catch folks up?
00:17:07
Speaker
We have a contract that's severely outdated with the students that we have in our classroom and we have been advocating that our students deserve better. So our number one priority is around safety and that's safety for students and staff, supporting our students through um episodes, helping them understand what might cause their upset so that they can prevent it the next time.
00:17:32
Speaker
um We're also looking at how do we retain and recruit the teachers that we have so that when students become familiar with the adults around them they feel safer and that also cuts down on any kind of safety things that might occur and and we're on strike because management continues to assert that they know what we want more than our members know what we want and even today we are at the table negotiating over an article that has no cost but it's around professional development management asserts that we need 30 hours plus of professional development each year and
00:18:15
Speaker
Teachers, counselors, ah SLPs are saying we need time to collaborate with those around us to be thinking about how to support the students in our classroom instead of having professional development that does not actually develop us in our classrooms to be better teachers. so We haven't really hit the big token pieces yet. Class size is absolutely something that's a sticking point for management. um And we haven't come back to the economics in general. So we know that we still have bigger issues, and but management doesn't seem to take seriously the issues at hand. And again, they continue to assert that they know more than we do about what we need.
Undervaluation of Women's Work in Education
00:19:00
Speaker
ah Thanks Dana. let's let's Let's drop just a little bit deeper into it. um This strike has resonated with many in the area. I myself, i outside of being in Albany, of visited places ah like ah ah like Eugene, Portland, other cities. People know about this struggle. As a matter of fact, they're conversing and talking about this struggle and they're talking about ah behavior.
00:19:23
Speaker
and in in in class size. um ah You have a just a ah thought about why this has resonated so much with with other public educators at this moment.
00:19:35
Speaker
I think in general, educators and other workers are being asked to do more with less, and what that's resulted in is having overcrowded classrooms, and rather than having a student that might need some space from other students, you don't have the space in your classroom to offer that student.
00:19:52
Speaker
and and Because of the other credit classrooms it might take longer than needed to notice that that student is on the verge of needing a break and by the time you recognize that it's too late and now you're having a room clear. um I think that in general teachers are in this profession.
00:20:14
Speaker
by choice. They're not in it for the money. and They're in it to help the kids that we have in our classrooms. We care deeply about them. And every day that we have these overcrowded classrooms and and these behaviors that result from having overcrowded spaces, we go home feeling defeated because we were not able to serve the students in our classrooms.
00:20:38
Speaker
so as as we are even navigating through these times right now, we have so many students who have unmet needs that we believe we could absolutely address, but the district continues to say that we don't have the money to address the needs of our students. The tax dollars are sent to schools to serve the students, so we're unclear where that money is being spent if it's not being spent on students.
00:21:05
Speaker
one one One final question of the resonances of this labor struggle in and other areas ah has to do with women's work and has to do with the value of women's work. and I think a lot of folks in the community have talked about it.
00:21:21
Speaker
overlook the fact that most of the workers in education are women. ah Historically, that has been the case. And there's been a lot of um ah a lot of ah concern, to say the least, at the shocking misogyny and and public misogynistic statements that are coming from ah leadership of of gaps. Can you say anything about like the role of of of women in the undervalued work that teachers, ah both men and women and other genders, ah perform? It's funny you should bring this up because the joke in the room has now become, let's make sure that we send the right male in the room so that they will listen to us. Women are undervalued.
00:22:05
Speaker
um if you haven't seen the video that South Shore counselor Mariana Fisher has um has that it's been posted out on social media I recommend you definitely check it out. um Essentially the leaders of this district are all male and they have this idea that females maybe aren't um capable of understanding the finances or aren't capable of understanding the dynamics that are involved or aren't capable even of knowing what they need for themselves. And because it is a predominantly um female career,
00:22:42
Speaker
um It definitely feels like the management is taking away the voice of the workers um because again, they know what the workers need and many of those workers are in fact women.
00:22:58
Speaker
ah Thank you. Thank you for your comments. And just to just affirm that, on my experience in working with many educators in the region ah over years is ah all employees ah being hurt within this system.
00:23:14
Speaker
ah being abused, yelled at, and and those particular effects amongst ah female staff and bullying from men in this district. And I know in talking to hundreds of teachers over the years and even folks just the last few days about there's a larger issue at stake here ah beyond the fundamentals that are in the classroom. So how are we going to conduct ourselves? and um Dana Lovejoy, ah we're going to make sure you get out and speak ah to ah the rest of um ah parent supporters and labor supporters.
Supporting the Strike and Further Information
00:23:50
Speaker
um Any final words, just where folks can contact, where to look for for information and ah day-to-day in this struggle?
00:23:58
Speaker
Yeah, we're keeping our website up to date, albanyteachers.org. Again, albanyteachers.org. um we're We're posting all the ways that you can be involved. There's a new bingo card involved um that you can click on different links and see how you can support the strike. um We also encourage you to check out our Facebook page and our Instagram. Those links are also on the website. um And just follow along with how things were going. We definitely appreciate the community support.
00:24:28
Speaker
Everybody check the links in this ah episode, special episode of something rather than nothing podcast, the Albany Teacher Strike. One great thing when you play Strike Bingo, everybody's a winner. Get involved. Please support Albany teachers involved on the front lines right now as they go into their fifth day of their historic strike in the Willamette Valley of Oregon. Thank you listeners. No contract. No peace. No contract. No peace. No contract.
00:25:16
Speaker
as charming as a kneel, Mr.
00:25:33
Speaker
brain is full of spiders you've got garlic in you so mr gardner i wouldn't touch you at a thirty nine and a half foot pole
00:25:47
Speaker
This is something rather than nothing.