Lessons from SF: UESF Teachers Push for Strike Vote in Contract Negotiations
We repost an article below which comes to us from two members of the leftist teacher’s caucus in UESF, EDU (Educators for a Democratic Union). They and other EDU and UESF members have been fighting for a strike authorization vote throughout the summer with quite a bit of success.
On Aug. 14, UESF members voted strongly in favor of a strike authorization vote. 99.3% of the 2251 members who voted were in favor of the strike vote. Here in Oakland we should learn from the struggles of UESF and be prepared to support them when needed.
Like us, they are faced with an intransigent district that drags out contract processes and demobilizes union members while proposing unacceptable contract offers.
Teachers in UESF are seeking a reasonable wage increase even though they are living in a gentrifying Bay Area with skyrocketing housing prices.
A few days ago UESF released an update on negotiations writing, “we can unequivocally say that the district’s salary offer was an insult to the men and women who actually do the work of educating our students. In fact, there was so little movement by the district that it is becoming likely that the district will force us into fact-finding and potentially a labor dispute.”
Besides needing to fight SFUSD to sign a reasonable contract, UESF members must also struggle to push a union leadership that is waffling on standing up to the district. The union leadership is, in fact, actively blocking the democratic decision making of the union members who are pushing for a strike vote.
The authors write, “We are unfortunately all too used to so-called organizing that uses members as negotiating leverage rather than genuinely allowing members to weigh in on how our union should run. And President Kelly is determined to reserve the right to decide when, and if, we have a second strike vote for himself.”
We, in OEA, should be equally vigilant that our contract negotiations do not become top-down affairs with no input and struggle from us rank and file teachers. Not only would that be undemocratic but it is also a recipe for a weak contract.
Besides learning as much as possible from the struggles of UESF, we should also be prepared to act in solidarity with the teachers, parents, and students of SFUSD. If they continue down the path of fighting for a strong contract, they will end up at the point of moving towards a strike.
This is how major teacher contract struggles which have pushed meaningful demands have recently gone in Chicago, St. Paul, and Portland. It is an Lessons from SF: UESF Teachers Push for Strike Vote in Contract Negotiations | Classroom Struggle: