Recently several locals achieved big bargaining wins, including more equitable salary scales, significant gains in health care, and benefits for special education teachers. Matt Meyer, the president of the Berkeley Federation of Teachers, says statewide efforts at the bargaining table have made a difference, as locals share information with one another.
“I think the level of organizing we did set the stage for great wins,” he said on a phone call on his way to Sacramento for Lobby Day. “It forced the district to consider our offers in a serious way.”
BFT negotiations resulted in a salary gain of 6% over the next two years, with 3% next January and 3 more the following year. Members’ health care coverage will also increase next January to 70% coverage by the district, and go up to 80% in 2028, a huge gain from the approximately 55% it is currently.
Meyer also mentioned securing a staffing ratio for school psychologists at 500 to one and being compensated for meetings after the end of the workday.
Like BFT, United Educators of San Francisco also secured gains in benefits with fully funded healthcare on the Kaiser plan for employees. UESF represents certificated and classified employees and got an extra hour for security aides and an 8.5% increase for classified members.
UESF president Cassondra Curiel says they also fought for relief for special education educators. The recent successful strike meant the district took their demands more seriously, she says. Although there is a cap on the number of students in a special education classroom, other things impact educators’ workload. UESF secured a compliance period giving educators time during the day to consult with families, other educators, and the students themselves.
Curiel says they will also recognize the complexities of meeting students’ IEP- individualized education plans – so they work for both students and educators.
“Our goal as a district is to balance workloads and to make sure students are getting exactly what they need and that the educators are providing for those needs,” she said. “Now there’s a structure to get them, instead of yelling into the endless void.”
The main priority for United Teachers of Los Angeles was changing the salary scale, benefitting educators at all stages of their careers, says lead negotiator and UTLA Vice President Julie Van Winkle. They raised the bottom of the salary to make them more competitive with other districts and veteran educators will get raises of around $11,000 a year.
They also reduced the credit requirement from 98 to 70 to make it easier to advance. “Before we won this, teachers basically needed to get the equivalent of two master’s degrees to complete all the salary point credits. It’s a lot of time and money, and in particular, it left single moms behind because it was too much to do,” she said.
“They’ve been stuck at this stagnant level because they had 70 something units and were never able to complete it. So now they’re going to jump all the way over to their appropriate column.”
UTLA members also got four weeks of parental leave, something Van Winkle says CFT has been fighting for. She hopes it will pave the way for the whole state to do something similar.
The gains have to do with hearing from thousands of members before writing proposals and rank and file members involved in the bargaining process, Van Winkle thinks.
“There’s representation of all different job classifications and areas of the city,” she said. “I think people are more committed to winning our proposals because they understand them, they helped write them, and they can explain the process as it’s going on.”