5 things Sacramento parents need to know about next week’s planned teacher strike
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Sacramento City Unified Schools labor strike explained
Sacramento City Unified School District teachers are poised to walk out and strike, affecting thousands of students. The Teachers Association’s last strike was 2019.
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The Sacramento City Teachers Association and SEIU Local 1021 — unions that represent teachers, bus drivers and other school employees — announced a strike next week.
It will affect about 40,000 students in the Sacramento City Unified School District and their families.
Here is what you need to know:
When is the strike?
At a rally on Thursday, the unions announced an “open-ended” strike that would begin in on Wednesday, March 23.
Why are they striking?
Labor shortages are at the center of the disagreement. The unions say a teacher shortage is causing hundreds of students to go without a full-time teacher or substitute. The unions also say students who chose to enroll in short-term and long-term independent study programs are not receiving quality instruction.
Didn’t they just strike?
The Sacramento City Teachers Association went on a one-day strike in 2019, when the union protested alleged unfair labor practices at a time when the district faced a financial crisis — a structural deficit of $35 million.
The teachers union voted to authorize a strike over a salary dispute in 2017. A deal was brokered by Mayor Darell Steinberg, Superintendent Jorge Aguilar and the teachers union to avoid that walkout.
Last year, the teachers’ union authorized a two-day sympathy strike to support SEIU Local 1021, but that walkout also was averted.
What if I have to send my child to school?
Schools will be open, and students can cross the picket-line. But many of their teachers may not be on site, leaving administrators to fill in, call on substitutes, or place students in larger cohorts such as gymnasiums or cafeterias.
That said, the district is short on substitutes.
“That’s the issue at hand. There are very few substitute teachers to begin with,” Sacramento City Teachers Association President David Fisher said.
Can the strike be called off?
It can. The unions say they will cancel the strike if good-faith bargaining resumes.
“This is a last resort,” Fisher said.
This story was originally published March 17, 2022 at 5:13 PM.
