San Francisco Teachers Union Votes To Authorize Strike

The United Educators of San Francisco teachers union voted to authorize a strike on Thursday against the San Francisco Unified School District.

For the past three years, teachers in San Francisco have warned of a possible strike if teacher pay did not increase by the end of the union contract in June. Frustration of the school system in the city grew city-wide during this time as well, evidenced by the recall of three school board members, lending credence to their complaints.

With a strike on borrowed time following the passing of the June deadline, both the UESF and SFUSD tried to nail down a solution. However, following months of intense negotiations, neither side has come come close to wanting what the other side has demanded.

The latest proposals show that the United Educators of San Francisco (UESF) wants $12,000 more for each step of the Certified teacher pay scale, as well as a 7.5% increase for the next year. Nurses and certified counselors would also see raises amounting to several thousands more. For other teachers, the union is proposing an 8% increase or a $30 minimum hourly rate, whichever is greater. Longevity pay would also go up to 3-18%. For workers in the Service Employees international Union (SEIU), their union wants an overall 16% raise as well as a lump sum payment of $3,000.

The SFUSD is currently at $10,000 per certified teacher step, with a 4% increase for next year. Raises would also begiven to everyone, including nurses and teachers, but only said that they are “increases” without a dollar amount or percentage specifically noted. The district also proposed a 5% increase or $30 minimum hourly rate and longevity pay of only 1-4% increases. SEIU employees were only offered a 6% raise with no lump sum payment with raises contingent on if San Francisco’s financial situation gets better.

The latest proposals came on October 5th. Seeing that they were nowhere near each other, teachers scrambled together two rounds of votes for this week. On Thursday, a strike authorization vote of over 3,000 voted in favor of striking 97%-3%. With a walkout now imminent, the UESF said that low teacher pay, a growing number of vacancies, and a faulty payroll system that has been in place for three years have made teachers more upset and stressed in recent years and that the vote on Thursday was simply the boiling point for them.

“The reason why folks are worried about this is because of how serious it is,” said UESF president Cassondra Curiel. “Educators have spent the last three years feeling really disrespected and underappreciated, particularly in San Francisco. And what should be clear to all San Francisco citizens is the additional stress of this payroll situation, and how terribly it impacts folks who deal with our youth. Negotiating a contract with little to no serious response, it builds up and folks have had it.”

Strike authorization in SF

SEIU chief negotiator Nato Green added that “As you can see from the press conference today, all the school districts’ unions are standing shoulder to shoulder. The San Francisco district is under the same civil service system as the city. Our members can transfer laterally into the city employment and immediately make 15% to 30% and pay less for health care. That has driven a huge staffing retention crisis within the school district, leaving members with untenable workloads and particularly making the district cut corners on cleaning school facilities.”

In response, the SFUSD released a statement late on Thursday saying, “We are working diligently and in good faith to reach an agreement with our labor partners, responsibly stewarding public funds and making financial decisions that most directly benefit student experiences. We recognize that there might be concerns and questions about potential impact of escalated labor action given the recent attention on strike authorization votes.”

However, education experts told the Globe that there are many factors surrounding the strike that neither side has mentioned outright that will influence the district’s decision.

“San Francisco is in the midst of a huge budget crisis right now of hundreds of millions of dollars,” said Hank Poole, an education budget advisor. “They’ve had to make cuts just in the past few days. And now they might have to drastically raise teacher pay. I mean, they’re in a tough place. There is a big teacher shortage in the city, and they would have hired more by now if they could. This is why it is so hardball right now. It’s not that the city doesn’t want to pay more, it’s just that they really can’t afford to. But rather than operate on a rolling contract for a year to see if San Francisco is in better finance, the teachers saw what Oakland got earlier this year and wanted the same.”

“The thing is is that teachers aren’t in the wrong. What they want what amounts to a cost of living raise in an increasingly expensive city and better teacher retention. That’s important.”

“The big problem here is that San Francisco has been losing businesses and a population for years, depleting their tax base. They have also had a progressive school board focusing on matters other than education at times, including an expensive attempt at renaming that ultimately failed. So less money coming in, expenses increasing, money being wasted, teachers growing upset, parents growing upset, not enough teachers in the system. I mean, you can see all these problems just on the surface.”

“So now the teachers are likely going to strike for more money against a city in a financially difficult situation. Neither side can afford to lose too much, so we are in for what looks like a rocky strike. Just another to happen in California this year.”

As of Friday, no strike date has been announced.