Update: Sacramento teachers and classified staff to strike on Wednesday after talks fail

9:15 p.m. update: The Sacramento City Teachers Association Tuesday night announced that its members and classified staff represented by SEIU Local 1021 would strike in the morning after bargaining between the unions and the Sacramento City Unified School District failed to resolve their disputes.

The district previously announced that schools could close during the strike because of a staffing shortage. That’s a change from the district’s last teacher strike in 2019, when campuses remained open during a one-day walkout that saw some 2,000 teachers on picket lines.

The unions are planning a demonstration Wednesday at the Serna Center, the district’s headquarters on 47th Avenue.

Sacramento district’s offer

4:55 p.m. update: The Sacramento City Unified School District this morning published details from an offer it made to its teachers union in an effort to prevent a planned strike.

The offer included a 2% raise as well as several bonuses for employees who’ve worked through the pandemic. Those bonuses, which the district calls stipends, amount to 2% of an employee’s wages for staff who worked this year, 1% of wages for employees who worked last year and 1% of wages for employees who worked in the 2019-20 schooolyear.

The district also wants to offer a $2,000 signing bonus to new teachers.

Sacramento teachers have been working under an expired contract since July 1, 2019. Negotiations over a new contract stalled when the COVID-19 pandemic began.

The district and teachers are negotiating over a new contract and separately over the district’s COVID-19 spending plan and staffing.

The teachers’ union is seeking a cost-of-living wage increase through the COVID-19 spending plan as well as other incentives intended to increase staffing.

No teacher agreement after Monday talks

10:45 a.m. update: Mediators for Sacramento City Unified and the Sacramento City Teachers Association met on Monday in an attempt to avert a strike that is set to begin Wednesday morning.

They plan to return to the bargaining table again with two state-appointed mediators on Tuesday morning.

The SCTA and SEIU Local 1021 announced an “open-ended” strike over teacher staffing shortages and COVID-19 protocol. Schools have been sorely understaffed, and substitutes have been difficult to secure for the more than 40,000 students in the district.

Sacramento City Unified announced that due to staffing shortages, schools could close on Wednesday. Teachers, staff and supporters plan to meet in front of the Serna Center for a demonstration at 11:30 a.m. on Wednesday.

“We are working to find common ground with our labor partners,” said Superintendent Jorge Aguilar. “The district’s proposals are squarely aimed at addressing our district’s staffing challenges and would help our district recruit and retain staff. Equally important, the proposals also appropriately and responsibly balance use of one-time funds and ongoing budget commitments.”

It’s unclear how long the strike could last if it takes place, but union leaders put out a strike schedule for Wednesday through Friday.

On Thursday, supporters plan to meet in front of the Sacramento County Office of Education and on Friday they will meet at Sacramento City Hall and Cesar Chavez Park.

“A strike would be detrimental to our students, who have already endured trauma and interrupted learning due to the pandemic,” Board President Christina Pritchett said. “We hope that our labor partners will consider that we are offering to enhance compensation for district employees while aligning health benefits across our district and maintaining a very generous health benefits package for all employees and their families. We ask that SCTA continue working with us and call off the strike.”

The district offered bonuses to teachers in contract negotiations, announcing their proposals in an email distributed to parents and school sites.

SCTA President David Fisher said, “the only way that we’re likely to get a teacher in front of every classroom is to be prepared to walk out of our classrooms this week.”

This story was originally published March 22, 2022 at 10:45 AM.