Unions Representing Sacramento City Teachers Vote Yes To Authorize Strike
SACRAMENTO (CBS13) -- The stage is set for a teacher strike after two unions representing members of the Sacramento City Unified School District voted Thursday night to authorize it.
The Sacramento City Teachers Association (SCTA) and SEIU Local 1021 represent a combined 5,000 certified and classified staff members within the Sacramento City Unified School District (SCUSD). With the vote, there is still no guarantee that a strike will happen, but the unions would now be able to call a strike in negotiations with SCUSD if deemed necessary.
"SCTA members have in fact authorized a strike if the district continues to bargain in bad faith and insist upon unacceptable demands," said SCTA President David Fisher.
Karla Faucett, the president of SEIU Local 1021, said, "Our chapter has passed the strike vote by 97%."
The vote came as a last-ditch effort to get better pay and address staffing shortages. It is also the second time in three years that Sacramento city teachers have put themselves in a position to picket.
Tim Douglas, a representative from SCTA who's also a history teacher at McClatchy High School, told CBS13 many teachers within SCUSD feel like pawns.
"This has been a traumatic two years for all of us," said Douglas.
SCUSD Superintendent Jorge Aguilar released a statement on negotiations that read, in part:
"We are on two separate negotiations tracks. The first is over our school reopening plans related to COVID-19. The second is over the full successor contract to our current agreement that lapsed in July 2019. The district and SCTA have both acknowledged that we are not at impasse over successor contract negotiations. The fact finding process we are in has nothing to do with inaccurate claims about "health benefit takeaways" or "salary freezes" that SCTA union leadership has used to urge SCTA members to strike."
While a strike is not yet guaranteed, both sides are set to meet again on March 17.
