Sacramento, California teachers authorize strike

 

Sacramento, California teachers authorize strike

By
Dan Conway

20 March 2019

Last Friday, more than 92 percent of voting teachers in the Sacramento Unified School District in California’s state capital voted to authorize a strike by the district’s 2,500 teachers. The vote expresses the growing militancy of teachers who over the last year have engaged in the largest number of walkouts in decades, involving nearly a half million teachers, including more than 40,000 in Los Angeles and Oakland.

Teachers in Dublin, California, 23 miles east of Oakland, have also voted by 98 percent to strike in the suburban district, which serves 12,300 students. The 623 teachers, who have been working without a new contract for more than a year, are demanding improved wages, smaller class sizes, reduced workloads, additional counselors and more affordable healthcare.

The Sacramento City Teachers Association (SCTA), which conducted the vote, said a strike could be called if the district and the city “persist in their unlawful behavior and avoid taking measures to correct their unlawful behavior.” The Sacramento City Unified School District serves approximately 40,000 students across 75 school sites.

The union did not set a date for a strike. If it is called it will likely not occur until April at the earliest as the SCTA has offered to meet with the district on either March 26 or March 28. Like other teacher unions, the SCTA has fully accepted the budgetary framework set by state Democrats who after decades of corporate tax cuts and school funding cuts, have left California 43rd in the nation for per pupil spending.

The unlawful behavior relates to the district’s non-compliance with provisions of the November 2017 agreement with the district, according to SCTA President David Fisher….

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