Sacramento mayor says teacher strike ‘would really be damaging to everyone’

Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg has offered to help mediate an agreement between teachers and the Sacramento City Unified School District in the hopes of avoiding a teacher strike next week.

Steinberg, who helped mediate disagreements between the parties while he was in the state Assembly, said he has not taken a side as the Sacramento City Teachers Association prepares to strike for the first time since 1989. But he said he’s confident the disagreement can be resolved.

“The bottom line is that, by definition, there will without any doubt be a contract, and so now is the time to start the agreement, not after a strike that would really be damaging to everyone,” Steinberg said. “But it needs to be a fair contract and we must recognize that the teachers are the most important piece of educating our future. I know enough now to know that this can be resolved.”

Teachers are working under a contract that expired in December, and tensions between the union and district officials have grown increasingly tense in recent months. Teachers last month overwhelmingly authorized the union to call a strike if an impasse continued.

The sides disagree over several issues, including the size of raises teachers should receive and class sizes.

This story was originally published November 3, 2017 at 12:33 PM with the headline "Sacramento mayor says teacher strike ‘would really be damaging to everyone’."