Seattle Central faculty held a walkout Thursday in a call for fair wages and solidarity during ongoing contract negotiations — and, as she has been for labor issues across the city over the past five or so years, District 3 representative Kshama Sawant was on Broadway to cheer the crowd on.
The teachers union AFT Seattle Community Colleges Local 1789 voted to hold what was called a voluntary walkout across the Seattle Colleges campuses — SCC, North Seattle College, South Seattle College and the Seattle Vocational Institute.
Thursday, faculty and some of the school’s thousands of students picketed in front of SCC’s Broadway entrance before and after the noontime rally where Sawant was the featured speaker. The Seattle City Council member connected the picket to national affairs.
“Let us be clear,” Sawant said during her time at the microphone inside a circle of a 100 or so at the SCC sidewalk rally. “Trump was elected because the vast majority of working people, not because they turned racist but because they are sick and tired of the domination of Wall Street interest in politics. And the way that teachers unions have got squeezed over the last many decades is just one powerful example of how our living standards have stagnated… while the 1% gets richer and richer.”
The union says it is fighting against unfair workloads, cuts to full-time positions, and low pay.
Seattle Colleges says it has offered the teachers an 11.1% raise over three years for full-time faculty, and a 7.8% raise for part-time faculty.
Seattle Central is in the midst of a yearlong celebration of its 50th anniversary. It began the celebration in September with a rally recognizing the school’s history of social activism.
No big shocker that Sawant is there. I wish she would just do her job. I’m really getting tired of her BS.
Maybe one day the third district will have a council member again. Pity only 29% of eligible voters voted that election and half of them voted her in.
She sure does seem to have a lot of spare time for bullhorning and rabble-rousing. I guess all the boring neighborhood-y problems plaguing Disctrict 3 must be on the verge of being solved.
I look forward to voting against her again at the next opportunity. Won’t you join me?
Indeed.
The district is misleading the public! I hope CHS will correct the article above. Here are the facts:
1) The district is not offering an 11% raise. They are only offering full-time faculty 3.3% raise and a 0% raise to part-time faculty. So where does the rest of their percentage come from? We received a 1.8% cost of living increase last year (which isn’t a raise) from the legislature and the district plans to ask the legislature to give us a 6% raise and essentially cross their fingers that the legislature will say yes (which they likely won’t).
2) Since 2008, faculty at South Seattle College have not been given a raise (that’s right–0%) while top administrative salaries have grown over 25%.
3) Starting faculty salaries at South Seattle College are 15% below the national average for community college faculty in metropolitan areas. We’re even paid less than over a dozen other community colleges in the state. Currently, our salary is so low that most faculty cannot afford to pay rent for a typical one bedroom apartment in Seattle. A number of faculty live with roommates.
4) The Seattle Colleges district treats faculty unfairly. Currently some faculty teach 15 hours a week and others 18-25 for the same amount of pay. We are asking for equal pay for equal work. We are fighting for fairness.
Please don’t accept the district’s press release as fact. It’s not. I’m disappointed that the district would attempt to mislead the public in this way.