This month's four-day teacher strike, which mercifully concluded this morning, should not have caught anyone off guard. The San Francisco Unified School District and its teachers had been at loggerheads since March of last year. On Oct. 10, the two sides formally declared an impasse and ceased negotiating. In November, teachers held "practice pickets" at more than 100 schools. In early December they voted to authorize a strike by a 99 percent clip and then, in January, did so again by a nearly 98 percent
Thousands of public schoolteachers in San Francisco went on strike Monday, the first public schoolteachers strike in the city in nearly 50 years. The strike comes after teachers and the district failed to reach an agreement over higher wages, health benefits, and more resources for special needs students. The San Francisco Unified School District closed all its 120 schools and said it would offer independent study to some of the district's 50,000 students.
West Contra Costa Unified School District teachers first took to the picket lines Thursday morning, demanding smaller class sizes, more resources for special education, and higher teacher salaries. RELATED: Still no deal in West Contra Costa teacher strike over staffing issues, pay The union wants a 5% increase over the next two years, and the district is only offering a one-time 3% raise.
A group of around 20 teachers at Harris Academy Beckenham went on strike on July 8 and 9 in protest against the school's alleged treatment of its overseas teachers as well as their workload, claiming it amounted to racism.