School Beat: A Contract for Teachers

Last week members of the teachers' union, United Educators of San Francisco (UESF) voted to authorize a strike. Though strikes are the last thing that anyone wants, UESF members were quite strong in their decision with about 2700 members out of 6000 turning out tand, according to UESF, about 87% of voting to authorize a strike. (http://www.uesf.org/strikevote.html). After years without pay increases and the outrageous cost of living in San Francisco continuing to climb, teachers have clearly had enough.

The district and the union have been in negotiations for awhile, with the next formal session scheduled for April 10th. In terms of the financial distance between the two parties, there is still a several percentage point gap—a 7.5% raise over 18 months offered by the district, where the union in its published materials is asking for 12% phased in over the next two years.

In addition to financial issues, there are others as well, ranging from having phones in classrooms to the scope of information that can be included in an evaluation. As with the support staff labor dispute, Parents for Public Schools has created a website with links to material being put out by both parties, in an effort to get as much information out to the community as possible (http://www.ppssf.org/Labor2006.html).

The tragic part of this situation is that we are all in agreement. Teachers need more money, more resources, more benefits, more of everything. There is simply no argument about this. The only disagreement is how much SFUSD can afford to give and where those dollars will come from.

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