Portland teachers ended an 11-day strike earlier this month, but the impact of the strike was felt long after the strike ended. Steve Lancaster, the longtime chairman of the Portland Association of Teachers, recently resigned, citing concerns about the union’s decision-making process. He stated in a message that “democratic processes of the union have contributed to an unnecessarily long strike for the gains achieved.”

Lancaster also noted that the compromised democratic processes of the union have led to the erosion of the strategic decision-making power and autonomy of the union’s bargaining team. His resignation highlighted concerns regarding the collective decision-making during the strike, comparing it to how democratic nations may lean toward authoritarianism in times of crisis.

Union president Angela Bonilla has not publicly addressed Lancaster’s statements. Teachers expressed frustration, saying “we have taken an important step forward, but we have a long way to go to win the schools Portland students and communities deserve.”

Despite criticism of the strike’s outcome, including from other teachers, union leaders including Lancaster and Bill Wilson urged their colleagues to ratify the tentative agreement, stating that rejecting it wouldn’t lead to better outcomes. Educators have criticized the school board members for blocking the union from reaching its goals.

The union stated that new funding has been set aside for weatherizing classrooms, improving sanitary conditions in classrooms, and increasing time for grading papers and planning lessons. The union also pointed to creating language on class size caps and setting up schoolwide “class size committees” that would help create more transparency for classrooms.

Discomfort with the strike’s outcome surfaced even before the tentative agreement was signed, with several hundred educators expressing their concerns in a letter to union leaders about a flier that encouraged “cook-outs and camp-outs” at the homes of school board members.