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The strike vote authorizes the union bargaining team to declare a strike during contract negotiations with the school district. It will also put pressure on the district\u2019s representatives to agree on an improved contract. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rafael Picazo, SEIU\u2019s chapter president, said there has not been an agreement since its contract expired in 2020 and they are working without a contract. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhat we\u2019re stuck on is economics because members in our union are the lowest paid in the school district, as well as, health care issues and site staffing,\u201d Picazo said in a phone call. \u201cIt\u2019s hard for the school district to hold on to talented workers because when they come in and transfer out to the city side, they get an instant 20 percent pay raise.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Picazo said members have not received a raise since the beginning of the pandemic and when schools reopened, cafeteria and janitorial workers \u2014 who are members of SEIU \u2014 made sure students were fed, schools were properly cleaned and disinfected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOur workers have been going to work every day for the last four years and no raise whatsoever, no cost of living raise . . . the school wants to cry and complain \u2018we got short attendance\u2019 well yeah, a lot of our workers are parents that end up leaving San Francisco because it\u2019s too expensive and with the salaries our members make, it\u2019s difficult,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Christian Benitez, a custodial supervisor who oversees 14 sites, said SFUSD is \u201dfrivolous with its money.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSFUSD is not doing right justice by the kids, fixing their infrastructure and keeping their staff at a liveable wage and that goes for not only classified but also non-classified workers,\u201d Benitez said in a phone call. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Benitez said the custodial department is 300 workers short, meaning each person is doing the work of two or three people. <\/p>\n\n\n\n One of those custodians, Morena Amaya, who cleans C\u00e9sar Ch\u00e1vez Elementary School, said she plans to join the strike if voted to move forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAs custodians, we are the faces of the school entrance. From the minute parents enter the school they notice whether or not it\u2019s clean to have a pleasant environment,\u201d Amaya said in Spanish on a phone call. \u201cOur role is just as important and for example, in an elementary school, there are many emergencies where kids urinate in their pants and in this flu season, kids vomit and we cover all of those cases.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cNosotros los que limpiamos somos la cara de la entrada de las escuelas, desde que los padres entran a la escuela se fijan si est\u00e1 limpio o no para que tengan un ambiente agradable,\u201d dijo Amaya. \u201cNuestro papel es muy importante tambi\u00e9n, por ejemplo en una escuela elementaria, hay ni\u00f1os que se hacen pee pee y poo poo, vomitan ahorita que estamos en esta temporada de gripe y pasan muchas emergencias y pues claro tiene que haber alguien que lo cubra.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Picazo said this is the worst he\u2019s seen the district in his 40 years working there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s hard to see how the last almost five years have turned out for our members and the lack of respect. The district says they want to be equitable, but I\u2019m not seeing equitable happen here,\u201d Picazo said. \u201cThe students are my priority, they’re the ones I want to protect. They\u2019re the ones our members look out for and we just want our administrators to recognize the workforce that is doing the work out there to make sure our kids are learning in a safe, clean environment and they are being fed properly.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n The UESF published a press release on Sept. 27, where President Cassondra Curiel stated: \u201cWe are doing everything in our power to negotiate a contract that is fair for teachers and good for students and avoid strike . . . As we negotiate with SFUSD, we always have the needs and best interest of our students in mind.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Frank Lara, executive vice president of UESF, said there are about 100 positions for teachers and 100 more for educators. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAll of this can be resolved by agreeing to the contract we\u2019ve been proposing, which will make this a very attractive job to educators,\u201d Lara said in a phone call. \u201cWe want the public and families to know that we\u2019re really highlighting this contract to stabilize schools benefiting families and students.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tom Anderson, who has been in the district for nine years and is a special education teacher at Dolores Huerta Elementary School, said SFUSD is not providing the needed resources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYou have the bargaining team, where it doesn\u2019t feel like the district is negotiating in good faith because to their counter-proposals on the economic packages, they\u2019re just pushing back the same paper back and forth with just different dates and it doesn\u2019t really feel like they\u2019re trying to come to a consensus,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In July of 2022, the SFUSD Board of Education and new superintendent Dr. Matt Wayne began a process to reaffirm its district’s goals, yet Anderson believes that teachers’ opinions don\u2019t get listened to as much. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI would like Dr. Wayne and his staff to visit schools, they still have not come to Dolores Huerta to see what schools or educators need because unfortunately, I think the district listens to parents more than educators when it comes to the needs and wants,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Anderson helps students who have an individualized education plan. It\u2019s only him and a paraprofessional for 27 kids in the whole elementary school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Elizabeth Kimballe, who has been in education for 25 years and is a dance teacher at Monroe Elementary, said there isn\u2019t enough support staff, \u201cespecially social workers and now more than ever kids are coming with many issues that impact the way they behave in schools and we need to be able to provide them with the support that they need,\u201d Kimballe said on a phone call.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She said there should be no need for a strike, but the circumstances have left no other choice. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cNobody wants to go on strike, that\u2019s the worst-case scenario for our students who need us. But if SFUSD is not going to work with us and try to make it a reasonable situation for educators to live and work in the city, then we have to take extreme measures,\u201d Kimballe said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Service Employees International Union Local 1021 (SEIU) and the United Educators of San Francisco (UESF), will vote to go on strike due to what they call unfair labor practices by their employer, the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD). UESF will vote on Oct. 11, leading to a possible second vote in late October […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":57885,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":false,"newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3929],"tags":[24638,1180,24640,241,94,24642],"coauthors":[23942],"class_list":["post-57881","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-en","tag-school-district","tag-seiu","tag-service-employees-international-union-local","tag-sfusd","tag-strike","tag-united-educators-of-san-francisco","entry"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/eltecolote.org\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/09302023-SEIUSTRIKE-ET-PU-2_web.jpeg?resize=960%2C1200&quality=89&ssl=1\")
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