Below are my personal answers to the main questions I've been asked lately. They are based on my best understanding of the situation and do not necessarily represent the views of the unions or the district. Feel free inform me of anything I may have gotten wrong.
Why are we talking about striking? We have been in negotiations for over 500 days and without a contract for over a year without coming to an agreement. We are currently the lowest paying district in Alaska (even though we get to a top amount of around $90,000, that's only after around twenty years of service and with at least 60 graduate level credits beyond a master's degree). The faculty and staff currently pay more for health insurance than any other school in Alaska. When the two are put together, that makes our mandatory health insurance unaffordable for many of our lower paid staff members.
Aren't a lot of people are dealing with lower salaries and more expensive insurance? Why are you teachers making such a big deal about this? First, when bad things happen, you should try to stop them, not hope that they happen to someone else too. Second, teachers have taken a greater hit in these areas than nearly any other profession and for a longer period of time. Third, when members switched to a plan that saved the district more money (to the tune of about 1.4 million dollars) the district pocketed that money (rather than use it to offset the costs to it employees) and raised the amount we had to pay--i.e. the staff made sacrifices and was punished for it.
Why didn't you figure this out over the summer? The district did not allow us to bargain with them. They met once in June with no new offer just to say they met and set the next bargaining day for the first day that teachers were back to work.
When will the strike occur? We will not go on strike until negotiations break down entirely (there is still a small amount of movement). It would not happen sooner than the second week in September due to the current negotiations, the start of the new school year, various regulations, and the fact that we are still organizing (see above about needing picket captains).
Why would you stop sports and extra-curricular, which especially hurts seniors considering the already limited seasons? The unions made no decision to do so. It was the district that announced it would shut down all such activities if a strike occurred.
Why would you, who claims to love kids, be willing to go on strike when you know it will have negative effects on them? The long-term health and well being of our faculty and staff has a direct impact on our students. Ironically, our district-wide meeting today emphasized the need for teachers to take care of their social and emotional needs so that we can better help our students in those areas. The metaphor was: on airplanes, parents are told to put on their oxygen masks before putting them on their children. Similarly, we won't be much help to our students if we are not dealing with our own needs. There are many, many employees in our district who are not receiving adequate medical treatment because they cannot afford these costs. We are also not able to attract (and are actually losing) high-quality faculty and staff; that is a greater negative for our students than any strike.
Why doesn't the district just hire "scabs"? Currently, the district has not even filled all of its open positions. This past year saw one of the largest departures of teachers and staff from this district ever. Wonderful educators and support staff are leaving because the state and the district are not taking adequate care of them.
I don't want to go on strike. A strike will be difficult to deal with and will require a lot of extra work, not to mention its effects on those people I care about. However, I will go on strike should it be called as I believe the health and well-being of this district's employees is a priority when providing for the health and well-being of our students.