TEACHERS IN SAN FRANCISCO on Sunday night announced they are going on strike Monday after negotiations with the school district failed.
“Despite negotiations that continued over the weekend and agreements that were reached on non-monetary issues, the district’s failure to sufficiently fund family healthcare coverage and failure to offer wages that keep pace with the Bay Area’s high cost of living have led to the strike by teachers, school counselors, nurses and paraeducators,” read a statement released by the United Educators of San Francisco union on Sunday night.
The strike begins Monday and members of the roughly 6,000-strong teachers employed by the San Francisco Unified School District will hit the picket lines, the union said.
On Sunday afternoon, both San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie and state Sen. Scott Wiener pleaded for an additional three days of negotiating between the school district and teachers’ union before any looming strike.
The union said earlier Sunday that they reached an agreement with the district on Saturday on one of several divisive issues, but not enough to head off a threatened strike.
This will mark the first strike by the city’s teachers in 47 years.
During negotiations, the union and district agreed to include the district’s existing policies on immigrant rights in the new contract.
However, there was little movement on wages and a demand for fully paid family health care, the union said.
On Sunday, union president Cassondra Curiel led a news conference prior to the strike announcement.
“We know the district is aware of what we are asking for, we’ve said it again and again, and I’m saying it again now,” said Curiel. “We need to see their serious movement. We’ll be on strike Monday without an agreement.”
Superintendent Maria Su said the district’s latest offer on Saturday included a 6% raise over two years and a health benefits allowance of $24,000 a year.
The union is asking for 9% over two years and coverage of up to 75% of health care costs at Kaiser or provide teachers with $2,000 a month for their own health care expenditures.
On Sunday, Curiel said the union would not accept salary increases that do not come “at the cost of concessions or takeaways” and salary increases that come with cuts to school sites.
Su took to social media Sunday evening to express her disappointment in the decision to strike.
“Let me be clear, I do not want a prolonged strike,” she said. “I do not want a strike at all. We need to build on the positive momentum from last night’s negotiation so that we can get an agreement.”
Su urged the union to continue the conversation, she said, and she seconded the mayor and senator’s call to keep the negotiations going for at least three more days.
Hard caps on class sizes and the union’s demands to alleviate the workload of special education teachers by hiring more and changing the way their workload is assigned were also areas of disagreement.
This story was updated at 10:45 p.m. as UESF moved forward with a strike set for Monday.