On the cusp of Monday’s planned San Francisco teacher work stoppage, teachers were jolted to receive emails from the district, telling them they had work to do.
On Friday evening, the San Francisco Unified School District emailed its 6,000-plus teachers, providing them information that they already knew: Schools are closed Monday due to the overwhelming possibility of the first San Francisco teacher walkout in 47 years.
The email informed teachers, who voted at a 97.6 percent clip to authorize Monday’s walkout, that they were receiving “redeployment assignments” to “Staff Centers” on Monday.
“In order to maintain District operations, we are opening Staff Centers, where SFUSD employees should report to work,” the email states. “Staff are expected to work and report to their assigned Staff Center.”
In addition to teachers, SEIU-represented district workers and school principals and administrators represented by the United Administrators of San Francisco also received “redeployments” to staff centers.
The principals and administrators union on Friday announced its members had overwhelmingly voted to engage in a “sympathy strike” on Monday, as did the SEIU-represented custodians and other school employees.
“Staff were given work assignments to ensure that anyone who reports to work during a strike has a designated location and can support with district operations,” reads a statement from the district.
The district cannot mandate striking workers report to the job. It is, however, bound to provide work opportunities for employees unwilling to abide by a strike, though it is unclear why those opportunities couldn’t be working from home or at a neutral site.
On text and WhatsApp chains, teachers alleged that this move was intended to mobilize the minority of unionized educators who do not favor striking, and undermine the work stoppage.
But that’s puzzling, considering such teachers weren’t simply allowed to work from home, and were instead directed into possible confrontations with their colleagues at school sites that will be heavily picketed.
“I don’t understand this redeployment plan,” said Anna Klafter, the president of the principals and administrators union. “If someone did want to report to work, a 300-person picket line at Lowell High School will probably give them pause.”
Mission Local is informed that the district has stood up eight sites as “Staff Centers:” A.P. Giannini Middle School, Hoover Middle School, Lowell High School, Marina Middle School, Burton High School, Roosevelt Middle School and the Ruth Asawa School of the Arts.
District employees were assigned to one of the eight sites, based upon its proximity to their home.
It is uncertain what work is expected to be undertaken at these sites, and who will cross a picket line to do it.
The move has confused and annoyed the teachers union and others, which are puzzled by both the motivation and execution of this redeployment plan.
Cassondra Curiel, the president of the teachers union, accused the district of wasting time on the cusp of a potentially bruising and costly strike.
“Instead of spending time redeploying district staff to hubs on Monday, we’d love to see the district put all their efforts into making a proposal that meets our students’ and communities’ needs.”
The message to district employees urged them to take public transportation to the “Staff Center” for check-in at 7:30 a.m. on Monday.
“HR staff will be stationed at the entrance to check you in upon arrival. Checking in with HR at your assigned Staff Center will be necessary to ensure accurate pay. Current work hours are in effect.”
The district employees were reminded to “bring your laptop, a charger and any other electronic devices or supplies you require to perform your job functions. Printers will not be available for staff use.” No family members or pets are permitted. “Please be mindful that we will be guests in our colleagues’ classrooms and spaces.”
Construction work is ongoing at a number of school sites and, under the district’s project labor agreement, private-sector construction unions are obligated to keep working through the strike. But individual private sector workers are entitled to refuse to cross a picket line.
Mission Local has spoken to a number of district employees from several unions and reviewed a number of text and WhatsApp chains. All of them were confused by the district’s move, and many were insulted. None planned to cross the picket line to attend.
“It is absolutely embarrassing,” said one school principal. “I am embarrassed on their behalf.”
Instead of actually negotiating, the district is doing everything they can do to just make their teachers look bad; including scheduling a bargaining session at 9 in the morning, when those teachers who are on that bargaining team were in classrooms teaching.
The district could go back to that endless supply of money they had for EmpowerSF, the criminal enterprise they hired to do payroll, and no matter how they screwed up SFUSD had to pay for that company’s mistakes. There was no end to those millions and no one was ever called to explain how that company got that contract.
Orrrrr, they could just fire the SFUSD legal team. They seemed to be okay with EmpowerSF’s contract with the district. That alone makes the legal department worse than worthless because it cost the district so much more money.
Well the disastrous payroll contract was issued in 2019…the board was controlled by progressives at the time. We voted to recall 3 of those bozos (Collins, Lopez, and some other bozo). They could not run a lemonade stand, let alone a complex organization. They focused on (1) getting rid of Lowell, (2) painting over depression era murals, (3) renaming schools, and (4) using LatinX.
The new board was handed a horrible situation after the recall. Student enrollment nd test scores had fallen, and the payroll contract/system was just one more failure by the “progressives”
Sir or madam —
School boards are not the body responsible for procurement or contracting beyond ratifying the work done by the well-paid professionals hired to run the district. You can blame the board for its fair share, but not for that. Your attempt to blame “progressives” — or, for that matter, “moderates” — for structuring a terrible contract for EmpowerSF and adopting a bum system is extremely foolish.
JE
We’ve hung in SFUSD through three kids and class being functionally nonexistent during the pandemic for a year and a half. But if this strike persists too long, we’ll bail. I no longer believe these teachers have student best interest at heart.
We all dream of a world where we pay our bills in a currency called “best interest”.
IRL, by lowballing teachers, SFUSD ends up with the ones who figure that being full of themselves and their pet causes is part of the compensation.
It’s pretty clear they want to make it harder for people to claim they are “working from home” and collect paychecks. Otherwise you can have folks vote to strike, causing all the pain for the district, and then a large percentage of them collect paychecks on a vacation at home. At least, that’s the districts view of it. Why would anyone be confused about that?
Yes, that’s my take as well. They are obligated to pay anyone who wants to work. So if you want to work, they have to tell you where to go, so they can count your attendance and pay you. Everyone should be offered a place to go and they can choose not to go and strike instead. But the district has to offer it to everyone.
The problem is everyone is so mad now that they are assuming bad intentions. And with all this, the students are the one that suffers
Can you elaborate? I didn’t get any whiff of “work from home” drama from the article. Maybe I’m not accustomed to thinking from the district’s view of things? This appeared to me to be a simple administrative redirection of strikers, where are you getting “work from home” implications? Who is confused – you?
What a stupid horrible situation for the students of SFUSD. I hope sanity creeps back into the conversation.
Good luck caregivers.
This is what organizing entails. Don’t assume that strikers are discarding their other responsibilities. Don’t assume they don’t have child care plans already set up or available for strikers. It would be insane to continue taking the heat from the district without asserting their power through collectivity as workers. Plus, kids these days are even doing their own walk outs. It’s you that needs sanity.
In San Francisco v. EPA, our so-called progressive city gutted water regulations across the USA. Is the NLRB GrowSF’s next victim? GrowSF was founded by people who aren’t from here and hold disdain for our city. Amazing how people here got suckered…
This is sad and pathetic and I hope nobody follows these orders. What would they do, write up every single striking employee if so? I’m very curious if this kind of strike resistance will make its way up the coast to Seattle. It is very ghoulish. Thanks for the report.
Sorry — strike doesn’t mean, “day off.” How about they help us parents who don’t get substitutes or guarantees on our employment. We just get fired because there is someone younger who can work 90 hours a week because they don’t have kids.
They can’t get blood from a turnip. The teachers are asking for raises the district can’t afford. And they want their family members to get free healthcare? No one gets that. And at least SFUSD test scores are abysmal
The union is really negotiating with the District’s funders. The District’s job is to manufacture consent for underfunding by playing PR games and being a stalking horse for Sacramento.
Well, it’s better to try to strike than to continue doing nothing. Jeez, I’m never returning to this comment section ever again, so depressing and lack of support
To be fair: you have to interpret SFUSD’s test scores with the confounding knowledge that any parent with the means and care will likely pull their kids out of the district by high school to protect them from incompetence and bullying. This is a teacher’s union that cares more about PSL ideology than that union members get their ears bitten off by feral children in the workplace.