Many students and parents have heard about the recently avoided teacher strike but not many know the details. APS teachers
have been working under a contract that expired on June 30, 2022. On December 29, The Akron Education Association (AEA) which represents nearly 2700 members in 45 buildings issued a 10-day notice to the APS school district to threaten a possible strike beginning at 7:30 AM on Monday, January 9, 2023, if the two parties cannot come to an agreement. The last time Akron teachers went on strike was in 1989 which lasted nine days. This strike would have been the first in decades.
Now let’s talk about the reason beh
ind the whole thing. There are a few major points that the AEA and the APS Board had been negotiating over. This includes health insurance costs, wages, and raises. The teacher union had asked for a 5% raise over each of the next three years, yet the board counter offered only 2% yearly. With low wages and other issues in Akron Schools, there have been many teachers who’ve made the decision to resign from their job. It is said that 20% of the district's teaching positions are vacant.
Another major issue is the safety of teachers in schools. There has been an increase in violence inside schools. APS has one of the highest suspension and expulsion rates of any school district in the state. The administration wanted to weaken the language as a way to determine teacher physical assaults in the contract, wanting to replace the word “contact” with “injury”. Pat Shipe, the president of the AEA stated “the superintendent (Christine Fowler Mack) and the school district are more concerned about their image than the actual safety of their teachers.” “Unless the teacher is severely injured, having to go to a hospital and in need of first aid, the district believes it’s not an assault because the numbers look bad.”
On Sunday evening, the AEA reached a last-minute deal with the school district, preventing the planned strike. Without any chance to see or vote on the contract, teachers and staff members were all ordered by the teacher union to cancel the strike and continue regular teaching in classrooms on Monday, January 9, 2023. The new contract includes wage increases of just 4%, 3%, and 3.5%. In addition to the wage increase, teachers will receive five additional sick days if they contract COVID-19. The district agreed to keep the language of
teacher assault the same as the previous contract. Despite this, according to Samuel Davidson on wsws.org (Teachers union pushes through sellout contract to avert a strike in Akron, Ohio), neither the union nor Akron Public Schools are addressing the violence in schools from the root of the problem. It is said that the Akron-Canton area has one of the highest poverty rates in the state of Ohio. The poverty rate is 23% in Akron, and many working and low-income families face difficult decisions about paying rent, food, clothing, and medicine. The cause of violence amongst students in schools stems from the conditions of social inequality and the lack of social movements to fight these harsh conditions. We are all hoping for a change in Akron as Derrick Hall, the new president of the Akron Board of Education says “There are still things we have to address because just signing a contract doesn’t make safety issues and discipline issues just magically go away. What we came away with was unity.”
Comments