The San Francisco’s teachers union has called for a strike to start Monday, Feb. 9. Teachers are expected to walk off the job and picket their schools starting that morning.
The district’s 6,400 educators were informed of the union decision in an email earlier this morning, and United Educators of San Francisco officially announced the strike date at an 8:45 a.m. press conference.
“We are announcing the strike here this morning because we want our community and families to be prepared in case the district does not make that agreement in time,” union president Cassondra Curiel told a mix of reporters and parents Thursday morning, standing outside the school district headquarters.
She said educators are intending to strike, but that there is still time for the district and the union to come to an agreement.
A full 97.6 percent of teachers last month voted to authorize a strike after 99.34 percent did so in a preliminary December vote.
“Since the strike vote, SFUSD management has begun exploring creative solutions, but so far, no proposals have been made. The 100+ person UESF negotiations team is scheduled to meet on Thursday and is ready to hear from district management,” reads an email sent to the district’s teachers by their union a little after 6 a.m. with the subject line, “Our Students Deserve Stability — UESF Strike Begins Monday, Feb 9th.”
“While we appreciate the late-stage urgency,” the letter continues, “we are left with no other option but to announce that, without an agreement that meets the needs of our students and educators, United Educators of San Francisco intends to strike on Monday, Feb 9.”
Barring a last-ditch turnaround at the negotiating table, it would be the first teacher strike in San Francisco since 1979, when teachers walked off the job for more than six weeks.
It comes after a nearly year-long bargaining effort between the union and the school district over wage increases, healthcare for dependents, special education, and other issues.
Mission Local has learned that, following today’s announcement of a strike date by the teachers union, the principals and administrators union will commence an emergency vote at noon on whether to hold a sympathy strike.
The online voting period will last 24 hours until noon Friday, and it is all but certain that the principals and administrators will vote in solidarity with the teachers.
While Superintendent Maria Su and Mayor Daniel Lurie have said their No. 1 priority is keeping schoolhouse doors open, it is hard to conceive of how that would happen during a strike of not only teachers but principals and administrators.
It is also unlikely that unionized maintenance workers and others would cross a picket line to provide access to school buildings.
The strike was called on the morning after a state-mandated fact-finding report was released that, legally, gave the teachers union the right to set a walkout date.
The report was non-binding, and could neither prevent nor even delay a strike. It largely favored the district, but found that the district could afford higher wage increases than it had offered, but not as high as the union desired.
The potential walkout is one of several across the state. In Los Angeles, 94 percent of teachers voted to authorize a strike, and in San Diego educators greenlit a walkout over special education concerns.
In San Francisco, absent a major development, “Morning picket lines will be held at every work site starting Monday, Feb 9.”
Additional reporting by Marina Newman
The fact-finding report clearly shows that SFUSD is able to offer larger pay increases than they have offered so far.
The raise that teachers are being offered is unreasonably low. The union would likely settle for 4-5% per year raises, which is about the projected inflation rate, +1%, for 2026-2028.
One area of compromise could be dependent health care benefits, it’s not really reasonable for these to be fully paid by the district, there should be some level of employee contributions for dependent health care.
I know some people insist that teaching isn’t that hard, and that teachers end up with 12 weeks off per year with summer, spring, and winter breaks, but that doesn’t take into account the number of hours per day teachers actually work.
In SFUSD there are no teacher’s aides to do things like grade papers, the teachers are expected to do this on their own on nights and weekends. My daughter is an SFUSD teacher and she’s working 13+ hour days. She’s at her school by 7:45 a.m. and often she’s at school until the custodian is locking up and she has to leave, at around 9 p.m.. We sometimes bring her dinner and eat with her in her classroom. On the weekends, she is grading papers at home and doing lesson plans.
SFUSD is certainly going to win in the court of public opinion, but a strike still costs everyone, including the teachers, the district, and the parents, a lot of money. Since other unions will strike in sympathy with the teachers, they’ll all be hurting.
Longer term, SFUSD should follow the example of Berkeley Unified and put a per-square-foot parcel tax on the ballot. In Berkeley, the BSEP parcel tax passed 88%-12% the last time it was renewed! It isn’t reasonable to assess the same parcel tax on a single-family home or condo on a single parcel as a multi-family apartment building on a single parcel ─ homeowners are currently subsidizing corporate landlords that pay a pittance in parcel and property taxes.
My daughter too is a teacher in SF. And I see how much work she puts in every week. I keep telling her to leave teaching and take up a job in the private sector. But she is an idealist and considers teaching a nobel profession. Its shameful how our society is willing to pay huge salaries to other non-deserving professions but hate to pay good salaries to teachers – who are responsible for the good upbringing of our children and future generations
Where does she teach and how much does she make (including salary, bonus, overtime, PTO, healthcare benefits, educational credits, and full benefits)? How much experience does she have?
I deeply hope there is more detailed reporting on this…as a parent and someone with a bit of knowledge of the back and forth, I have to say that Maria Su has been, if not disingenuous, then rather incomplete with the facts she is presenting to parents. For example, she has several times written in announcements that she is offering the proposed health benefits…but doesn’t mention what she proposes to take away in exchange! (retiree benefits)
It’s thorny and tough, and I understand both sides’ positions, but the upshot for me is that I hope reporting can fill in more of the gaps for parents and community members, and that they realize she is presenting information with near-Epstein files levels of omission.
Good for them! It’s really sad when a policeman in the academy makes 85K with full benefits, while teachers start off at 60K,and benefits are fast becoming a thing of the past. I remember years ago then superintendent Arlene Ackerman, came in and offered the teacher’s a 12% raise, as well as gave us $250 to spend on our class rooms.
Really? How do the safety risks of a police officer compare to those of a teacher? Compare night shifts and long, irregular hours for police officers with teachers’ work schedules. Consider vehicle-related risks—such as high-speed pursuits, roadside stops, and traffic accidents—versus the classroom setting. Compare exposure to weapons with managing disruptive or unruly students.
I remember many a time, students threaten to go home and get their momma’s gun and shot me. 2 years ago, a 6 year old in the midwest did just that and shot his teacher, teachers are under constant danger, not just from students, but disgruntled parents too,in France a parent stabbed her child’s teacher to death over a grade. Oh! and school shooters. A police person, can easily make over 100k a year with over time, the chronicle did an article on police over time, and it’s abusive a few years ago. Teachers do not get paid over time,and with papers to grade,and phone calls to parents, our day never ends. So talk what you know!!!
One thing worth noting about the fact finding report is that it also proposed a clean deal – no major concessions in exchange. Yet the district has never offered a clean deal; even before the fact finding committee, they demanded that the union give up all class size goals. This would be an enormous concession with equally sizeable impacts for every student and educator. And that’s only one of the many concessions demanded. It is hard to avoid concluding that the district is still mad UESF did so well in 2023 and is acting to punish them now.
If the district wants to avoid a strike, a clean deal with limited to no concessions would be a good faith effort. Failing that, it seems what they want is disruption (and 2.7m for OpenAI).
Do you have a reference to the 2.7M for OpenAI? I only read that the price was redacted, which was kinda unusual.
Please Stop calling it a “teachers strike” then union representatives ALL SFUSD educators including para professionals, speech therapists, social workers, counselors, substitutes and more. It is not a teachers strike but an educator strike.
The educators are in the verge of a strike because the district underestimates is revenue and over estimates its costs. They waste money on tons of outside contractors as shown in fact finding. There is money, we live in one of the wealthiest cities in the world. Pay ALL educators what they deserve.
Shameful!
San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) and the United Educators of San Francisco (UESF) reached a historic contract that included significant pay increases for teachers and school staff: 
Key elements of that deal:
• $9,000 pay raise for certificated teachers in the first year (2023–24). 
• 5% raise in the second year (2024–25). 
• On average, this amounted to about a 19–20% total increase in annual pay for credentialed educators over two years. 
• Paraeducators and support staff (ESPs) received large raises too (average ~39% increase) and a new minimum wage of $30/hour. 
These increases were described by union leaders and local media as historic and unprecedented in recent district history because they went well beyond typical cost-of-living adjustments for SFUSD. 
Shameful? You are talking about a contract that was three years ago and brought them up from subpar levels to mid. (Nothing compared to the average Peninsula district). This is a new contract. Su is a bureaucrat with no classroom experience, she should not be the person in charge.
It’s impressive, really — every other worker adapts, retrains, or switches jobs, but somehow this group gets to shut down a city already wrecked by progressive overspending. At some point, “find another job” applies to everyone.
Huh? What does your retraining statement even mean here? Why should they find another job, they can fight for better conditions. Heck, teachers should work to the contract hours and then folks can really feel the pain. A
Weird that if teaching is so good why there is steep decline in people in the profession? Plenty of people could just ‘leave and find another job’ and then the district would spend money and time looking for new teachers. Here is a bit about that foolish approach…
https://learningpolicyinstitute.org/blog/penny-wise-pound-foolish-false-economy-underinvesting-teachers
Some districts are importing teachers from other countries,like the philopines.
What I can’t understand is why educational levels are so poor compared to the past. Kids are moved from grade to grade no matter how poor their performance is. Huge percentages graduate from high school who can barely read at elementary school levels, if that. Same with math. Employers can’t find job applicants who can read and write, or even speak, well enough to fill out a job application, let alone do the job. The school district spends vast amounts of money but graduates large numbers of kids who are close to, if not literally, functionally illiterate. The teachers unions are more interested in implementing a Marxist agenda of indoctrination and “social justice” than in providing a well rounded education that will serve the students well in life. Very different compared to when I was in school in the last century.
If this lasts very long, those who can afford to send their kids to private school will pull them out of the district. And enrollment will drop more, worsening the structural deficit that got UESF and the district to this impasse in the first place.
I don’t really understand how UESF can be so short-sighted. Nor do I think teachers have a realistic sense of what health benefits are like for most others who work non-government jobs. $1200 a month for a family would be a steal for us.
It looks like any parent that can rub 2 nickels together are sending their kids to private schools. With the cost of some of those school, at 30K per year, almost what it cost to go to U.C Berkeley. One wonders where they are getting the money?
Booooooooo to the teacher’s union. There is belt tightening happening, y’all. Be glad you aren’t getting the axe like so many people these days. Jeeeeez.
This is overreach on the part of the union at the expense of SFUSD students. The neutral fact finding report echoes this.*
The raise they’re being offered is reasonable, the one they’re asking for isn’t. Average salary has risen from $79k in 2020 to $103k today, a 30% increase.* The typical range is today is $79k to $134k*, with top earners making over $175k. That’s close to the median family (not individual) income in SF.* And lifetime healthcare benefits for teachers, which few of us have, cost the district $37 million annually.*
Teaching is an arduous and valuable job, but it’s still a job that lasts 36 weeks a year. Add a month for prep work and to compensate for long hours during the school year and that’s still a lot of time off.
This is all aside from the fact that the district just doesn’t have the money.
I hope the union reconsiders. They are going to lose in the court of public opinion, and will not get all they’re asking for, no matter how much pain they inflict on the district and, especially, students, like my own two SFUSD kids.
* Sources:
– https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/teachers-brink-strike-fact-finding-report-district-21333435.php
– https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/teachers-brink-strike-fact-finding-report-district-21333435.php
– https://www.glassdoor.com/Salaries/san-francisco-ca-teacher-salary-SRCH_IL.0%2C16_IM759_KO17%2C24.htm
– https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/sanfranciscocitycalifornia/PST045224
– https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/sfusd-teachers-strike-21331694.php
Glassdoor isn’t the best source. You should consult the SFUSD salary schedule (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zDVQ8JDt7oPEzY-mAKR9hOdohKQjjVP4/view). Your claim that top teachers earn over $175k is not true. They top out at $131, 654.
Summers off, breaks all the time, constant bitching – teachers have it too good. Just stop already.
then why do you not take up a teaching job? try living on a salary of under 80K a year in a city like SF where monthly rent for a decent studio apt is $40000 or more a year