CUSD Teacher's Strike Ends

As is usually the case the strikers claim victory but I don't think they really won much.  It sounds more to me like they realized they had put themselves in a bad spot and needed to find a way out:

A five-day standoff between the Capistrano Unified School District and its teachers union ended late Monday, with the two sides coming to a tentative agreement that ends teacher picketing.

Teachers will all return to their classrooms Tuesday morning.

“We are really, really happy for our teachers and our schools, to have our family back together again,” school board President Anna Bryson said of the agreement that was reached about 11:30 p.m. “It’s a really wonderful feeling to know our kids will have their teachers.”

Union leaders said in a statement that Capistrano teachers had been “victorious in their struggle to achieve a negotiated settlement” and lauded the educators for taking a “courageous stand” on the picket lines for three days.

“It is the courage and determination of CUEA (Capistrano Unified Education Association) members on the picket lines and the thousands of supportive district parents and community members that resulted in the tentative contract agreement with the CUSD board of education,” union President Vicki Soderberg said in a statement.

Bryson said the school board also was pleased with the outcome and that it was a mutual agreement.

The three-year deal maintains the 10.1 percent pay cut that was unilaterally imposed on teachers in March, but offers some “restoration language” that will allow teachers’ pay to be restored “as revenues increase,” according to the union.

Now comes the ugly part, the conflict between the teachers that struck and those that didn't or who went back yesterday. There will be festering problems between those groups for at least the rest of this year, not to mention the conflicts with administration.  The gloating language of the teacher's union president isn't going to help.

Since the news broke so late I'm guessing that attendance will still be way down today since most parents won't find out the strike is over until later today.