TA Highlight: Some Basic Rights

In our tentative agreement, we won some basic rights!

After over a year of organizing and showing up, SDEA members reached a tentative agreement that tackles some big issues like Special Education staffing and raises. We also secured important everyday protections that make a real difference at work:

• The right to bathroom breaks: For the first time, our contract will guarantee coverage for bathroom breaks. Before, it was up to administration to decide whether to plan for coverage. If we ratify the tentative agreement, schools will be required to have a coverage plan, and violations can be enforced through our grievance procedure instead of filing a Labor Code complaint. When our rights are easier to enforce, those rights are stronger. 

• The right to clean, cool air: Previous air quality bargained during an earlier COVID-19 era has expired… but our need for clean air has not! If ratified, the District must provide air filters for classrooms without working HVAC systems and regularly inspect and service those systems. Functioning air systems aren’t optional, whether that’s filtered air during flu season or working air conditioning in a heat wave.
• Speaking of working HVAC systems, we also won the right to streamlined repairs: Maintenance requests used to bottleneck at central PPO (which had over 60,000 requests as of January, just for this school year!) Under our new agreement, simple fixes can be handled at the site level, with central PPO stepping in when needed.

Read more in Article 8 and Article 11.

Other key wins in our tentative agreement:

• Concrete fixes for Special Education staffing
• 5% pay raise over 2 years – see what that looks like for you with this calculator 
• Locked in fully-paid family healthcare (including Kaiser $10 co-pay)
• Side Letter for no layoffs for the term of the contract (June 30, 2027) – a historical win!
• No fall excessing at Title I schools – that’s 150 out of 175 schools!
• Restored Early Childhood Education Teacher stipend
• Seniority for summer school hiring
• Protections for immigrant and LGBTQ+ educators and students
• …and more! 

Many resources are available to help you understand this tentative agreement before voting, including highlights, a detailed summary of changes, the full agreement language, and answers to frequently asked questions: Click here for Tentative Agreement Resources.

Now it’s time to VOTE! 

Right now all these wins are a tentative agreement… because to actually implement these changes, SDEA members need to VOTE! Voting will take place in person at a union meeting at your school or program, and began on Feb. 26.

Our contract covers all certificated educators, but only SDEA members get to vote to ratify it. Not yet an SDEA member? Join now online!

Members on leave and Visiting Teachers can vote at the SDEA office (M-F, 8AM – 5PM). All ballots are due to the SDEA office on March 23 at 5PM. If you don’t know when your next union meeting is, talk to your site rep!