The Minneapolis teachers union announced Sunday that its membership had approved a collective bargaining agreement with the city school district, ending a prolonged strike that cost the city’s public schools 14 days of classes.
The Minneapolis Federation of Teachers approved a tentative agreement with the school district Sunday, ending the weekslong strike. Seventy-five percent of the union’s membership voted in favor of the agreement.
“This has been a life-changing experience for all of us,” Minneapolis Superintendent Ed Graff said in a statement. “Through it all, we have seen the power and passion of our community, the commitment of our staff and the intense need to focus on our students. I believe MPS and MFT have arrived at a fair and equitable agreement that honors the requests and needs of our staff.”
MINNEAPOLIS STUDENTS LOSE 10TH DAY OF CLASS AS TEACHER STRIKE DRAGS ON
The city’s teachers returned to work Monday, and classes are slated to resume Tuesday after an 18-day strike that saw the city school district cancel 14 class days.
To make up the missed days, the city and the union negotiated an extension to the school year. Classes are now slated to end on June 24, and school days will be extended by 42 minutes beginning on April 11.
The agreement contains numerous concessions by the district to the union’s demands of higher teacher and support staff pay and smaller class sizes. The district had initially told the union that meeting its demands would put the district more than $150 million over budget.
At a press conference announcing the results of the vote, the union’s teacher chapter president Greta Callahan praised the results of the strike and the new agreement while also remaining critical of the city school district.
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“We know we had to do what was best for our kids, for each other, for this profession and for our Minneapolis Public Schools because we will not allow them to crumple, we will not allow them to fail,” Callahan said. “So when we talk about a power dynamic shift and things needing to change at the top of MPS, we mean it.”
