(Reuters) – Minneapolis public school teachers called a strike on Monday, their first for more than 50 years, leading the school district to cancel classes for 30,000 students beginning Tuesday until the work stoppage is resolved.
Some 4,500 teachers and support staff of the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers plan to form picket lines at school buildings on Tuesday morning and hold a rally and march in the afternoon.
“We are going on strike tomorrow for the safe and stable schools that our students deserve,” Greta Callahan, teacher chapter president of Minneapolis Federation of Teachers, told a news conference after walking out of talks with district representatives.
“When you have thousands of people saying we will go without pay so that our kids can have the schools that they deserve, you know that something is wrong in the Minneapolis Public Schools,” Callahan said.
Minneapolis teachers last went on strike in 1970 in an illegal strike that union leaders said ushered in badly needed reforms.
Teachers are demanding better wages, mental health support and limits on class sizes, saying the Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) district can afford it given the state of Minnesota’s $9 billion budget surplus.
But the district says it is facing a $97.2 million budget shortfall for the coming fiscal year, and that the gap between what the union is demanding and what the district can afford is in the millions of dollars.
Enrollment has fallen by 3,000 students as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, resulting in less funding from the state, while the costs for running schools have increased, the district said in a fact sheet about the strike.
“MPS will remain at the mediation table non-stop in an effort to reduce the length and impact of this strike,” the district said in a statement announcing the cancellation of classes.
(Reporting by Daniel Trotta; Editing by Kenneth Maxwell)
