The San Francisco teachers strike, the city’s first in nearly half a century, is over.
The teachers union and the school district reached a tentative agreement early Friday after an all-night bargaining session. The sides announced the two-year deal near 6 a.m.
Students will be back in classrooms Wednesday. Schools had already closed for Friday, and both Monday and Tuesday of next week are district holidays.
The biggest sticking points were all resolved. The teachers won their marquee ask: fully funded dependent healthcare. For teachers with families, this ameliorates costs that often stretched to perhaps 20 percent of take-home pay, eating up recent wage gains.
It’s a benefit that one teacher on the bargaining team who pays around $1,500 a month for his children’s healthcare described to Mission Local as “life changing.”
The fully funded family healthcare comes at the expense of raises below the teachers’ initial ask. Rather than the 9 percent raise the union desired, teachers will instead receive 5 percent over two years. “Certificated” staff like paraeducators, who are paid less, will get 8.5 percent over two years; the union had asked for 14 percent.
Special education teachers will get some caseload reductions but not to the extent the union asked. The union also won other changes, like security guards being given the chance to become full-time employees.
The district, in its pre-strike proposals, had made its offers contingent on reducing existing benefits, like prep time. The final deal does not give away much for the union, but does pause teacher sabbaticals for one year.
“We know our work is not done,” the United Educators of San Francisco wrote. “While we didn’t win everything we know we deserve,” she said, the new contract was “a foundation for a stable district.”
Superintendent Maria Su said in a statement that the new contract would “attract talented educators” while keeping the district financially solvent.
“I know it has been a hard week, and I want to extend my heartfelt appreciation to our students and families. We cannot wait to welcome you back to school.”
The strike was San Francisco’s first educator walkout since 1979 and was far shorter. The work stoppage 47 years ago lasted more than six weeks and involved court orders requiring teachers go back to the classroom and Mayor Dianne Feinstein urging a resolution.
This time, Mayor Daniel Lurie made a last-minute plea for more time but only seriously involved himself days before teachers walked off the job. The strike had been brewing for months, and the two sides formally declared impasse on Oct. 10 when negotiations ceased until picking up again last week.
Lurie, in a Friday morning statement, wrote that he was “grateful that our educators and school district have reached a tentative agreement” and thanked both sides for their work.
Educators demonstrated at every school site in the city in the mornings, 30 minutes before the first bells usually ring. They held daily mass rallies at Dolores Park, City Hall, and even Ocean Beach. City officials joined the picket lines, and the head of the country’s second largest teachers’ union flew in to show support.
Negotiations took place at the War Memorial Veterans Building where the more than 100 educators who were part of the union bargaining team sat down with the district’s representatives every day since Thursday, Feb. 5, save Sunday.
Talks often lasted well into the night. The two sides quickly came to an agreement on proposals that would cost the district little: codifying protections for undocumented students, continuing its “Stay Over” program for homeless students, and implementing regulations for AI in classrooms.
The economic package — wages and healthcare — and a new work model for special education teachers were more contentious. But once family healthcare was agreed to by the district Thursday evening, the other measures were passed within hours.
This is a developing story and will be updated as more information becomes available.