SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The Sacramento City Unified School District sat down at the bargaining table for hours with the Sacramento City Teachers Association for the first time on Sunday since thousands of teachers and staff went on strike last week. The district also continued talks with the local SEIU 1021 Chapter.
However, no deal was made with either union, meaning kids did not return to the classroom on Monday.
“The Sacramento City Unified School District (SCUSD) and SCTA continued to make progress in negotiations, and worked well into the evening on Sunday,” the district said in a press release Sunday night.
The district went on to meet with SEUI Monday morning and was set to meet with SCTA at 1:30 p.m.
Meanwhile, civil rights and labor leader Dolores Huerta joined a rally Monday morning in support of the teachers union outside Rosemont High School.
SCTA has been calling on the district to agree to the recommendations made by a neutral panel in its fact-finder report. You can read their proposal to the district here.
The district responded with a counterproposal on Sunday. Read it here.
In it, the district increased its one-time bonus equal to 2% of teachers’ pay this year to 3%.
The union representing classified staff slammed SCUSD after its meeting Sunday morning, saying the district showed up to the bargaining table unprepared.
The local SEIU chapter represents thousands of custodians, bus drivers, instructional aides and food service workers.
In a statement, SEIU said the negotiating team was expecting the district to have a counterproposal at their first meeting on Sunday, but instead they “got a series of ‘clarifying questions’ from the district’s chief negotiator.”
“We explained our counterproposals to them once again, as we did yesterday, even though they are clear, and this is an experienced negotiator who understands very well what they mean,” said SEIU 1021 Chapter President Karla Faucett. “We are frustrated that the District is still stalling despite the urgency of the situation. We asked if they could have responses to yesterday’s proposals for us by 11:30 a.m., and they said they would not.”
The district has said its proposal to SEIU 1021 includes a 2% ongoing salary increase that would go into effect on July 1, 2022.
“The proposal of 2% , I’m sorry, but it is ridiculous,” said Debra Durazo with SEIU. “We have not had a cost of living adjustment, I want to say since 2018/2019. The cost of living, just in the Sacramento area, has increased. I believe it’s almost 6% so 2% will get us nothing.”
Members of SCTA and SEIU sit on each other’s negotiating teams. Both unions have requested the district meet with them at the same time, but SEIU said the district refused.
The district shut down all of its campuses from Wednesday through Monday as it did not have enough substitute teachers to fill staffing shortages by the strike.
On Friday, the state’s top educator tried to step in to have the unions and district sit down at the bargaining table. But the district did not attend the meeting, State Superintendent Tony Thurmond told KCRA 3 on Friday.
The SCUSD Board of Education explained in a virtual meeting on Friday why the district did not accept Thurmond’s invite.
“Because this is a local issue between the district and its labor partners, we do not want to circumvent the appropriate process for reaching agreement with our labor partners at the bargaining table,” said Lisa Murawski, SCUSD Board of Education member.
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