Minneapolis educators have authorized a strike if talks with the school district do not result in a contract agreement.
The union has not yet set a strike date. State law requires the union to provide at least 10 days’ notice to the district of any possible strike. The union said it would not file its strike notice before mediation resumes Thursday.
“We were hoping that the district would actually meet us at the table and cooperate with us, because we have solutions embedded in those bargaining proposals,” Marcia Howard, president of the teacher chapter of the Minneapolis Federation of Educators, said at a Tuesday morning news conference.
According to a union press release, 92% of members participated in the strike vote, and 92% of voting members voted in favor of a strike. The biggest sticking points in contract negotiations are class sizes, special education caseloads and educator pay.
For educational support professionals, the big issue is longevity pay, or additional compensation for more years of service. “The district isn’t coming close to where they should be,” Catina Taylor, president of the union’s ESP chapter, told Sahan Journal last Thursday. Asked Tuesday how likely a strike is at this point, Taylor said that it’s “purely up to our district leaders with what they come back with.”
In a statement Tuesday morning, Minneapolis Public Schools said that it understood the union had authorized a strike, but had not yet filed its official strike notice with the state.
“The district remains hopeful that a student-centered and fair agreement can be reached and looks forward to the next scheduled bargaining session on Thursday, October 30,” the district said.
The district has noted that it anticipates at least a $25 million budget shortfall for next school year after steep cuts the previous two years, and that additional funds for salary increases would result in further budget cuts.
Howard said the union “is aware of what our district and other districts are going through, and we kept that in mind with our costing. Our members are disappointed because they just keep delaying and disappointing us with the lack of preparedness. They don’t have their math ready.”
In March 2022, Minneapolis educators held a three-week strike. As part of the deal reached to end the strike, class-size limits became part of Minneapolis teacher contracts for the first time.
But exceptions in that contract language gave the district the right to exceed class size caps, by finding alternative solutions or paying the teacher an additional $500 per student. A Sahan Journal analysis found that in fall 2024, one in five elementary classrooms exceeded the class-size cap.
In a statement, Minneapolis Public Schools identified class size as a “top shared priority” with the union. The district released its own proposals for how to lower class size, which it said would cost less and in some cases provide lower class sizes than the union’s proposals. The district’s proposal would maintain two tiers of class sizes, with smaller classes for high-poverty schools, and keep the option to pay teachers $500 for each student over the class-size limit.
The union is pushing for smaller class sizes for all schools.
“We think that all students deserve low class sizes, and in practice many of the highest class sizes in MPS have been at schools that aren’t above the current threshold of 70% students receiving free and reduced lunch,” the union said in a bargaining proposal summary to members.
Instead of paying teachers for extra students, the union said, each school should create a committee to find class-size solutions, which is the practice in St. Paul Public Schools. “We don’t want to encourage a solution such as a payment per student that doesn’t solve the problem.”
Another sticking point is pay.
According to documents that Minneapolis Public Schools posted online, the district has offered teachers a 1% salary increase for each year in the two-year contract.
“If I were to cross the river and go to St Paul, I’d make $8,000 more,” Howard said at the news conference. “Competitive pay is pay that’s commensurate with our peer districts and Minneapolis Public Schools is probably about fifth on the list.”
The contract teachers ratified in 2022 to end the strike included a 2% raise in the contract’s first year plus a $4,000 bonus, and a 3% raise in the contract’s second year. The contract ratified in 2024 included raises of 4% in the first year and 5% in the second year.
“Because resources are limited and everything cannot be done, MPS and MFE must work together through the bargaining process to determine how the available resources are used across our shared priorities,” Minneapolis Public Schools said in a statement posted online. “MPS has two proposals prioritizing class size and is open to reallocating those to meet MFE’s other priorities.”
The strike could be called off if educators reach deals with the district before it is scheduled to begin. In April 2024, Minneapolis educators scheduled a strike vote, but teachers reached a deal with the district before voting. That year, education support professionals voted to strike, but also reached a deal with the district before a strike could take place.
The two sides will meet again for mediation on Oct. 30.
