Last school year, SDEA members developed a bargaining platform and showed up in support: holding walk-ins, passing out thousands of flyers to families, and picketing at 125 schools. Our collective power has already led to some progress at the bargaining table with a 1.5% retroactive raise and progress on evaluations, but as SDEA members return to the bargaining table next week on September 11th, we know we need to keep up the collective pressure:
- For fully staffed schools, including Special Education staff who are already over caseload while still waiting on two years of grievance settlement checks.
- For improved educator pay, including a critical ECE stipend which the District allowed to expire for our already lowest-paid educators in some of our hardest-to-staff programs.
- For stability for our students and communities, who are impacted by the unnecessary chaos of transfers and by even higher-stakes threats of ICE raids inching closer to the doors of our schools.
To win all the things we’re still fighting for, we need to build on the momentum of last year and get ready for our peak power as a union: Strike readiness!
SDEA is getting strike-ready!
In August, site and program leaders attended a full-day Union Academy focused on Strike Readiness and what that would look like at their site. SDEA hasn’t held a strike vote in decades, so leaders invited experienced voices to share concrete examples: Georgia Flowers-Lee, who shared insight from UTLA’s recent strike, and Nate Gunderson, NEA organizer and “Strike Doula” who has supported striking educators nationwide. Their concrete examples helped leaders begin drafting their own plans to start the year strong.
What’s the next step?
Attend your September union meeting to work on your local strike readiness plan together (and learn more about the details of the first union-wide action of the year!)
- Not sure when your union meeting is? Ask your site or program representative!
- Not sure who your rep is? Reach out to the SDEA office!
