SFUSD teachers to walk off jobs Monday

The strike is set.

Unless there’s a breakthrough at the bargaining table, San Francisco’s roughly 6,000 public school educators will hit picket lines Monday to argue for higher wages, improved dependent health benefits, and increased staffing for special-education students. It would be the first teachers strike in San Francisco since 1979.

The United Educators of San Francisco announced the work stoppage in an email to educators sent Thursday morning. The San Francisco Unified School District’s 50,000 students will need somewhere else to go starting next week.

“The growing vacancy and turnover crisis in SFUSD harms students every day,” the union wrote. “District management has not acted with the urgency students deserve.”

The union and school district have been at loggerheads since March.

A Public Employers Relations Board fact-finding panel released a report Wednesday recommending that the SFUSD provide educators with a 6% total raise over two years. The teachers union seeks increases as high as 14%.

The union maintains that the district can tap into its $111 million reserve to pay for salary increases. The SFUSD, which is under state financial oversight, contends that it cannot afford the union’s demands. The district has said its reserve is necessary to show it is fiscally solvent.

“We didn’t come to this decision easily, and we do not take the next steps lightly,” the union wrote. “We know this truth: the status quo is failing students.”

Anna Klafter, president of the United Administrators of San Francisco, said she supports educators’ decision to walk off their jobs. “I look forward to a quick resolution,” Klafter said.

Andrea Pereira, whose two kids attend Sunnyside Elementary School, also spoke in support of teachers at a union press conference Thursday morning. In an interview afterward, Pereira said she believes “a lot of parents are behind the teachers.” When she brought more than 100 pro-union posters to her children’s school, parents took them all.

“My kids are going to be walking the picket line with me in support of our teachers,” Pereira said.

But the San Francisco Parent Coalition, a nonprofit advocacy group, came out strongly against the decision. “This was the wrong call,” the coalition said in an email to members.

The group, whose newsletter reaches roughly 10,000 families, said the fact-finding report “identified a clear path forward” and “recommended that now is the cool-down period for final negotiations at the bargaining table.”

There’s still time to avert a strike. The district and union will meet at 5 p.m. Thursday to continue negotiations.

“Impossible to say for sure, of course, but I would still bet on some last-minute settlement, even if it defers a real solution on some issues,” said John Logan, professor and chair of labor and employment studies at San Francisco State University.

In a statement, Superintendent Maria Su reiterated that the district does not want a strike and said she is “committed to working around the clock to reach an agreement.”

“We are meeting at 5:00 pm today which will allow us to present our proposal that meets many of our educators’ requests, including to fully fund family healthcare and provide wages we can afford,” Su said.

At Thursday’s press conference, UESF President Cassondra Curiel called on the district to come ready “with the spirit and proposals to make a deal.”

“The homework is due at midnight,” Curiel said, “and this is 11:59.”