PORTLAND, Ore. — A complaint was recently filed to the Oregon Employment Labor Relations Board, seeking more than $100 million in damages from the Portland teachers strike in November. The Oregon Education Association was also included as a respondent in the complaint. The complaint asked that the current contract, agreed to in late November, also be rescinded.
In the complaint, lawyers argue that families should receive damages for days missed and costs of childcare. They also ask for damages for things like missed athletic events and a carve-out for high school seniors specifically.
The complaint also claims the November teacher strike was illegal, because the teachers' union made demands over non-mandatory bargaining topics like class size.
Four Portland parents are a part of the complaint, though all used pseudonyms.
"It aims at dividing our communities,” said Maya Pueo Von Geldern, a Portland Public parent not involved in the complaint. "I guarantee you that those affected most by the strike or by children being out of school are not those saying that they're owed $100 million."
The lawyers for the plaintiffs are not from Portland. One, Daniel Suhr, works for a Chicago-based law firm. He’s filed lawsuits against teacher unions nationwide; one lawsuit seeks $250 million from the Chicago teachers' union. Another, over an 11-day teacher strike near Boston, was dismissed.
Another lawyer involved, Jeff Eager, is the former Republican mayor of Bend.
KGW reached out to Suhr for an interview. He declined on behalf of himself and his clients.
Pueo Von Geldern said the complaint detracts from issues Portland Public is facing, like ongoing budget cuts.
"It has nothing to do with providing children a better education," she said of the complaint.
KGW also reached out to the Portland teachers union and Oregon Education Association, the umbrella union organization overseeing educators' unions statewide, but neither responded.