Thursday, May 3, 2012

We're running for election!!

Check our our CANDIDATES page at: http://www.educatorssf.org/

(published in April)
SFUSD has a $50 million surplus yet is demanding over $30 million cuts.
The district bankrolled their unrestricted and restricted funds from the last round of contract cuts three years ago. Now they are asking for more. Here are some of SFUSD’s proposals:

Layoffs: 495 certificated and classified total, while other Bay Area districts are proposing significantly fewer layoffs
Union Busting: blatant disregard of seniority while imposing layoffs
Additional Furloughs: SFUSD is proposing 5 per year; other districts in CA are giving furloughs back Class size increases: K -3 and Special Education
Para Hours “Smoothed Out”*: each para will work 5.5 hours regardless of current schedule or student needs
Pre-K hours slashed: Pre-k school year will be cut by 27 days, equaling a $4300 (10%) pay cut for EED/CDC educators
Elimination of Preps: High School AP and Department Head preps cut
Sub cuts: elimination of CORE Subs and Sabbaticals

 SFUSD is bullying us!  EDU believes the best response is to fight back. That means everyone in UESF organizing at our sites and UESF preparing for a strike. UESF’s “Enough is Enough!” campaign is a step in the right direction, but it’s still not enough. The campaign calls for multiple actions, culminating in a May 10th membership meeting. However, the May 10th meeting agenda is intentionally vague; they hint at initiating the strike vote process, but remain noncommittal and ambiguous. This is not leadership. UESF needs to call the strike vote meeting on May 10th, tell the members what it is and why we need to take this step, and organize all UESF members to attend and vote on May 10th. All the actions on the pledge card will have maximum impact if they culminate in the threat of a possible strike.

 Therefore: ** EDU urges all sites to circulate the UESF “Enough is Enough!” pledge cards. We urge all members to attend the May 10th meeting. This is the only way we can send a clear message to SFUSD that we are ready to take decisive action and we are prepared (if necessary) to strike.* ** EDU recommends your site pick at least one other action to organize around and attend before May 10th. It could be weekly leafleting or attendance on the April 24h demonstration, or it could be to work to rule. It’s important your site discuss and do something together.* Our schools, our students and our union cannot afford to wait and see what is going to happen. SFUSD is taking decisive action to attack our union and cut our schools and we must take decisive action to fight back now! Contact EDU EDU would love to hear from you! We want you to join the struggle. Get in touch for more information or to arrange for EDU members to visit your work site, UBC or divisional meeting to talk about our campaign.

Contact us for more information or to join our meetings: edudemocraticunion@gmail.com