Reuters – Brendan O’Brien
“Teachers in Seattle on Sunday ratified a new three-year contract putting an end to a labor dispute that included a week-long strike and a series of marathon bargaining sessions overseen by state mediators. Rank-and-file teachers and support staff in the 5,000-member union, the Seattle Education Association, “overwhelmingly approved” the accord that consists of pay raises totaling 9.5 percent over the life of the contract, according to union spokesman Rich Wood. Teachers ratified the contract four days after they ended a strike on Wednesday that cost 53,000 students six days of class time in the largest public education system in the Pacific Northwest.”(more)