Ackerman: S.F. can avoid a school strike

Here is the full text of the most recent message from Arlene Ackerman and her administration concerning the possible strike by SEIU Local 790.

S.F. can avoid a school strike
Viewpoint
BY Arlene Ackerman
Published: Sunday, November 6, 2005 6:14 PM PST

San Francisco’s Board of Education has gone to great lengths to avoid a damaging strike by the Service Employees International Union Local 790, which represents school custodians, cafeteria workers and clerical staff.

The board has offered Local 790 a new proposal that contains a 3 percent raise, expanded coverage for dependent health care, three more paid days off, no furloughs for two years and early retirement incentives.

These enhancements would improve employees’ existing compensation, which includes wages that rank at the top among Bay Area school districts, lifetime health care for retirees and dependents, retirement contributions of more than 14 percent of salary, and up to seven weeks of paid holidays and vacation each year, in addition to sick leave.

The district also currently offers 100 percent coverage of each employee’s health care costs, 80 percent of the cost of an employee plus one dependent, and 60 percent of the cost of family coverage.

Local 790 leaders have demanded 100 percent for an employee plus one dependent, and nearly 85 percent of family coverage.

The board’s new proposal meets these demands for the upcoming school year, which would give benefits worth an additional $2,200 annually to each Local 790 staff member with family coverage. Every Local 790 employee would also receive wage increases totaling 3 percent within the next 20 months.

That health care costs are skyrocketing is common knowledge, and employees of school districts and other employers nationwide are making concessions to reduce their employers’ health care contributions. No employers are offering to increase health care coverage levels as the Board of Education has done. The board simply asks for the right to discuss in future negotiations further increases beyond the initial $2,200.

Local 790 leaders rejected the board’s new proposal and insist that the San Francisco Unified School District commit to covering annual growth in health care costs as far as the eye can see, without discussing these increases in future bargaining.

The costs of the board’s offer for all employee groups would total almost $27 million, which would force the SFUSD to make deep cuts in staff, programs and schools. Local 790 leaders’ demands would total nearly $43 million if applied districtwide. The difference in the two proposals is equivalent to closing an additional 20 schools, laying off 110 more teachers or increasing class sizes by an additional three students in grades 4 to 12.

Local 790 leaders, along with teachers union leaders, are placing the SFUSD in an impossible situation, recklessly forcing the Board of Education to choose between a damaging strike and an even more crippling bankruptcy. I urge Local 790 leaders to reconsider their position. I ask parents and community members to evaluate the long-term impact of these decisions and to keep in mind that the real source of our problems is California’s under-funding of education.

Well-paid union leaders whose own pay will not be interrupted are urging rank-and-file workers to prepare for an illegal strike and go unpaid during the holiday season. (The SEIU may call an illegal strike as early as Nov. 10.) To avoid a strike, I challenge Local 790 leaders to let their members vote on the board’s proposals. I am confident that workers would accept these proposals and choose not to strike if they were allowed to vote.

Considering my plans to step down as superintendent next June, it would certainly be easier for me to let this situation run its course. However, I cannot in good conscience be silent knowing the irreparable consequences of committing to union leaders’ demands. I am convinced that accepting the union’s offer and applying it to all employees would lead to a state takeover of our district within two years. This would decimate both the quality of education for San Francisco’s students, and employees’ wages and working conditions for a decade or more.

In order to avoid a strike and insolvency, if Local 790 leaders agree to let their members vote, I would be willing to work with the board to identify a date before June when I would step down.

All of our schools’ staff members deserve a raise. The Board of Education has made a very reasonable offer including salary and benefits increases. The board’s proposal represents our best opportunity to recognize the hard work of school employees without bankrupting the school system. In the end, it’s our students, not the adults, who will be hurt most by a strike. Don’t you think our children deserve better?