We Can’t Give Up – The Struggle Continues!
As this school year winds down and we head into our much-deserved summer break, let’s celebrate our collective victories over the last 4 school years that we all fought so hard to win together as SDEA union educators:
- Over 20% in pay increases & protecting our fully paid family healthcare to maintain the best total compensation in the county
- Stopping the layoffs of hundreds of the newest educators in our schools
- Almost completely eliminating fall excessing that was so disruptive to our school communities
- Establishing 39 community schools for next school year, a safe sleeping site for our unhoused students at the former Central Elementary campus and protections for immigrant and LGBTQ communities being targeted by the bully in the White House
- Winning significant solutions to finally address years-long unresolved caseload overage grievances and the special education staffing crisis in our district
Our historic next contract is a testament to all the hard work it took to get strike-ready for the first time in 30 years in SDUSD. When we achieved our goal of more than 90% of SDEA union educators voting to authorize a strike, we left the district with no other choice but to shut down schools on the day of our strike because they knew that you can’t run schools without us! This gave our SDEA Bargaining Team maximum power to push the limits of what was possible in our next contract because we had the full force of more than 6000 mobilized SDEA union educators behind us.
We now have the foundation to build to maximum power once again with our We Can’t Wait sister unions across California to create the momentum needed to:
- Increase funding for public schools in the wealthiest state in the country
- Secure major improvements in our contract around salaries, class sizes, caseloads and ratios for student support professionals like SLPs, psychologists, nurses and counselors
- Defeat rising authoritarianism and fascism in our country
We can accomplish all of this through escalating our collective actions and building our union power in the next phase of our We Can’t Wait contract campaign, just like we did so successfully over the last 2 school years. This is our opportunity to develop a bargaining platform with even more ambitious demands and get ready for potential open-ended, economic strikes in 2028 to win big on all the things.
It is easy to get discouraged with the threats to public education and unions from the federal administration and to our funding from the Governor who continues to withhold the funds in budget negotiations for our 5% raise that is needed to staff hard-to-fill positions like special education. But we can’t give up – the struggle continues and all of us are critical to win this fight for the schools and communities our students deserve! Onward!
