SFUSD Teachers Overwhelmingly Pass Strike Authorization Vote

After months of unresolved contract negotiations, San Francisco educators overwhelmingly passed a strike authorization vote Wednesday, the first of two needed to approve a work stoppage across the city’s public schools.

During a five-hour vote at Balboa High School on Wednesday, 99.3% of United Educators of San Francisco members who cast their ballots chose to give the union’s bargaining team permission to call a strike vote at any time as they continue to work with the San Francisco Unified School District and third-party mediators to reach a contract deal for this year and next.

If the union does call and pass a strike vote, the district’s more than 6,000 educators could launch their first teacher strike in nearly 50 years.

“When our members come out for this vote … it gives us direction where we should be headed next. And it should be a very clear sign that our members are on the same page,” UESF President Cassondra Curiel said, ahead of Wednesday’s vote. “As a union, we have to do what our members say, and that’s what’s happening. They’re saying continue to push, and so we have to move forward with this escalation.”

Educators are currently working under a contract that expired in June.

UESF has asked for a 9% raise for teachers and 14% raise for non-certificated staff over two years. They also asked for up to 100% health care benefit coverage and a new special education staffing model, among other demands.

“Our members feel very, very strongly … and are willing to move toward collective action if necessary,” Nathalie Hrizi, who is coordinating UESF’s bargaining, said of Wednesday’s results. “There is willingness to strike over these issues if we have to.”

Union leaders say months of bargaining that began in March have been fruitless: In October, UESF and SFUSD declared an impasse and entered a mediation process after the union rejected a proposal from the district that offered educators a 2% wage hike if they agreed to concede on many of their other demands — including the increased health care benefit contributions and special education staffing model.

Union leaders said the pay increase would have meant discontinuing other previous contract stipulations, like a sabbatical program for veteran teachers and extra preparation periods for advanced placement teachers.

Curiel said that the union moved to end mediation after getting the impression that the district didn’t plan to make any additional offers in the weeks after their mediation session. Now, they’ll move to the final bargaining step before a strike, an independent fact-finding process conducted by a third-party panel. After a hearing later this month, the group will issue non-binding recommendations for a compromise deal.

SFUSD has said it remains committed to reaching an agreement with the union, but is currently under stringent fiscal oversight by the state and in the second year of a two-year budget stabilization plan requiring hundreds of millions in ongoing expense reductions.

Last year, the district made major personnel and service reductions to cut $114 million from its budget, and according to early recommendations obtained by Mission Local, the district could present plans later this month to cut another $113 million next year.

Spokesperson Laura Dudnick noted that in 2023, SFUSD awarded historic $9,000 raises to all UESF members.

“Right now, the state of California holds the authority to override any decision by the San Francisco Board of Education if it believes that decision could compromise the district’s financial stability,” Dudnick said in a statement. “We are facing another round of major budget cuts for the 2026-27 school year, and difficult decisions are ahead. Balancing the budget is a core step toward exiting state oversight.”

The tension echoes labor negotiations in districts across the Bay Area, where educators say their wages have fallen behind the cost of living and school districts have passed rising health care costs along to them, cutting deeper into their earnings.

West Contra Costa County Unified School District’s teachers launched their first-ever labor strike Thursday, and Berkeley Unified School District’s union declared an impasse in negotiations with their district last month.

Curiel said come January, San Francisco teachers with more than one dependent could have to put $1,550 per pay cycle toward health insurance.

Wednesday’s result authorizes the union bargaining team to call for a strike vote at any time, though they can’t legally go on strike until the fact-finding panel issues its report in the coming weeks.

After the district and union receive the panel’s recommendations, the district will be able to make a final contract offer.

“Right now, we hope district management is really looking at where they’re at in negotiations and preparing to bring us things that could be a potential agreement,” Hrizi said. “No one wants to strike, but we are willing to [in order] to win the necessary things we’re fighting for.”