We need to change state law to prevent another extended teachers’ strike. The unions will certainly resist this.

The Tacoma strike worked well for the union and its members who stayed off the job for six school days following a judge’s order to return to their classrooms. They suffered no consequences, and the district ceded all three issues.
But the community suffered.

We could not procure this government service elsewhere during the strike. Thousands of parents paid extra day care costs and lost precious vacation time. We had no say in designating strike makeup days. Nearly half a million …

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Comedian Flip Wilson used to tell jokes about a woman who always had a pat answer whenever she made a bad choice in life – say like buying an expensive dress she could ill afford. She’d strike a defiant pose and proudly declare, “The devil made me do it.”

When the Tacoma teachers voted to go on strike, I thought they collectively made that choice – good or bad – for themselves. But according to the Sunday editorial, “Thank Gregoire for ending Tacoma’s pointless strike,” it was really all those lawmaking demons down in Olympia who drove Tacoma teachers …

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Re: “Thank Gregoire for ending Tacoma’s pointless strike” (editorial, 9-25).

The News Tribune seems to think that the strike was all a big waste of time. The teachers made their point by sticking to their principles and being willing to take the criticism.

Parents often make reasonable requests of their children only to be ignored until more pressure is brought to bear on the issue. The potential of losing a game system, toy or privilege is not nearly as powerful as actually carrying through on that promise. Businesses react when customers threaten to take their business elsewhere or cancel …

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I was extremely disturbed to read about the “poor” Tacoma teachers not getting paid for the days they were out on strike (TNT, 9-24).

I have news for these people: That’s what strikes are about. You are not paid when you are on strike!

The teachers will still get their money. That’s the problem with teacher strikes: They really don’t lose anything.

Tacoma School Superintendent Art Jarvis has chosen the wrong path in electing to withhold Tacoma teachers’ pay for the month of September.

The strike is over. Teachers and students are back in the classroom. Now is the time to begin the healing process, not exacerbate an already difficult situation with a final inflammatory act.

Tacoma teachers and administrators have fought with each other long enough. It’s time for them to remember that they share a common goal: the education of the young people of Tacoma. Withholding pay from Tacoma teachers will simply cause more families to suffer, more children to …

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I was flabbergasted when I read the quote from Tacoma Education Association president Andy Coons (TNT, 9-24), who stated that the teachers needed their pay or they might not be able to pay their mortgages and that many teachers live paycheck to paycheck.

What does he think happened to all of those parents who had to miss work to take care of kids who were supposed to be in school? How about parents who had to come up with $35 per day per child for child care while the teachers were off not doing their jobs? How about the …

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Now the teachers are crying about not being paid for the days they were on strike (TNT, 9-24).

This is exactly what they inflicted upon those of us who work for Nutrition Services, the bus drivers and the paras. The teachers put hundreds of families in exactly the position they are now complaining about.

Yes, we’ll get paid later when we make up the days, but we have bills that are due now, too. And through no fault of our own, we were locked out of our jobs.

We have to deal with it. Teachers, deal with it.

As a 2004 graduate of Tacoma Public Schools, I was so proud of the positive and productive ways Tacoma students supported their teachers during the strike. They truly exemplified how civil disobedience can be a peaceful demonstration of how democracy works in our country.

I am confused, however, at the district’s latest action to delay teachers’ pay checks. How is there a state “law” that says teachers can’t be paid for days missed until they work them which then reimburses them two weeks later before any of these days have been made up?

Isn’t this just a petty, vindictive way …

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