SFUSD teacher strike next week

SFUSD teacher strike next week

Hi Friends & Supporters,

The impending school district strike looks more and more like reality - Of course, I will not cross a picket line, and have full & complete student support.

For some of us, this means a couple of days or weeks of no work and pay, but that's a sacrifice some of us are willing to take.

See you on the line or on the streets!

Peace,
Nancy

Sonarist wrote:

11/10/2005

hello everyone,

its me, armon. this is why i will be going on strike next week:

this evening, members of SEIU, a sister union to my union, United Educators of San Francisco, announced that they will strike next week. SEIU is comprised of co-workers of ours who we teachers see everyday. They clean our classroooms, serve lunch to our students, and among other things, remove asbestos from our schools. On average, SEIU workers work four to five hours a day within SF schools. As I understand it, they are striking for the following reasons.

1. The district only pays these workers three out of every five hours they work to avoid contributing costs to their health care.

2. The district refuses to provide health care coverage to their immediate family members. Despite the rising cost of health care these days, the SEIU membership in SF is small enough that Superintendent
Arlene Ackerman's severence package-- $375,000-- would have been enough to cover these costs for the year!

3. Negotiations have come to an impasse, and without striking, SEIU will be forced to accept the district's last offer which leaves them no room to bargain for a sustainable future. I have to say this again, and I never use caps. THIS IS ABOUT PROVIDING A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE FOR WORKING PEOPLE, PREDOMINANTLY PEOPLE OF COLOR, WHO HAVE CHILDREN WHO ATTEND OUR SCHOOLS.

4. When compared to SEIU workers in other districts in California, these workers by far have the worst offer ever handed to members of their union in any other district in over one-hundred other districts. As one teamster from another union told me recently, "If this were our union, we'd spit in their faces before we accepted an offer this insulting." therefore, i and many of my brothers and sisters in UESF will be joining SEIU on the picket lines when they annouce their strike next week. we will not cross. we will not
work.

there's more:

my own union, UESF, while not announcing a strike of their own, is very likely to do so in the near future. for this reason, solidarity within and among sister unions is very important. this is a very tough time,
especially when I consider what some people are thinking right now: "The economy sucks. There is a war. Everyone's thinking about their paycheck. Of course those teachers want to strike." NO. THIS IS NOT ABOUT TRYING TO SQUEEZE BLOOD FROM A TURNIP! please consider the following:

1. Over the last five years the district has received a 15% increase in funding from the state. This money was designed specifically to pass on to school district employees as a Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA). UESF members have only received 2% of the 15% COLA. If you consider that San Francisco Unified is dead last among large California districts in total budget spent on salaries and benefits for employees, along with the fact that San Francisco Unified spends 8.75% of its budget on professional consultant services-- 3rd highest amongst 13 largest school districts in Califronia-- no wonder "school district negotiators say there is no money available for wage adjustments for teachers and paraprofessionals." [ http://www.uesf.org/facts.html] We are a very "top heavy" district, with adminstrators paying large salaries to other administrators to make thier jobs easier! Just last month the San
Francisco Unified School District received $1.8 million in state lottery funds (See SF Examiner 10/7/05). According to the California Lottery, 77% of these funds are usually spent on salaries and benefits for instructors. For the 2004-2005 School year, SFUSD received more than $6.3 million, about $468,000 more than was projected. Yet, none of that money has so far been spent on a salary increase for teachers. [ http://www.uesf.org/facts.html]

2. Superintendent Arlene Ackerman is one of the highest paid administrators in the country. Despite her repeated claims of district poverty, Ackerman got herself a raise to $250,000 a year, and a generous housing and transportation allowance. On top of that she will receive and unprecedented $375,000 simply for quiting at the end of the school year.

3. A CTA analysis found that at $53,843, the average teacher salary in San Francisco ranks 10th out of 13 largest California districts, despite San Francisco being the most expensive place to live in the state. (Keep in mind that half of us, including me, make AT LEAST $10,000 less than this figure.) [http://www.CTA.org]

4. San Francisco Teachers are amongst the lowest paid in the nation and in the state of California. When comparing salaries throughout the entire country, the National Center for Policy Analysis found that San
Francisco teachers earned the second worst salary in the nation at an adjusted $32,663. Another study, by the California Budget Project, also found that San Francisco is the most expensive place to raise a family in the state. That study found that a family of four must make nearly $80,000 a year to afford basic
needs.

5. Our district is currently either refusing to adopt, proposing to take-away or eliminating many important provisions which make our jobs safe and healthy, including: built-in preparation periods during the school day, rights of members to have a voice at work through the Union Building Committees, sabbaticals, important health and safety provisions, requirement to keep schools clean from rodents and insects, protection from and removal of asbestos at schools, and other important provisions [ http://www.uesf.org/facts.html].

So, please, please let everyone you know KNOW...

during the last strike of 1979, 60% of san franciscans didn't send their kids to school because they supported us. now, we need you. everyone you know needs to know that there is a battle on in SF. it is NOT the have-nots vs. the have-nots. THE MONEY IS THERE. THEY HAVE IT. please tell
everyone you know that we are making a stand. its going to hurt us. its definitely going to hurt me, because i was just evicted and have payed rent twice this month. but that's nothing compared to teachers who are being payed through grants who will be striking with me without health insurance, or teachers who are worried that the district won't hire them next year because of their probationary status.

please tell everyone you know. it's on. for real.

every san franciscan who hears a story in support of the imminent teacher strike brings us that much closer to surviving one more year as a profession perpetually on the verge of a break-down.

every parent who can afford to keep their child home during the strike that does so will bring us that much closer to forcing the district to respect all its workers.

PLEASE MENTION THE STRIKE TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW.

thanks,
Armon