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Tag: tentative deal

  • San Francisco teachers’ strike ends as union and school district reach tentative deal

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    A San Francisco teachers’ strike that closed public schools for some 50,000 students this week ended Friday as the union reached a tentative agreement with the cash-strapped school district, which will provide pay raises and improved healthcare benefits.

    The tentative contract between the San Francisco Unified School District and United Educators of San Francisco includes a 5% raise over two years for teachers and fully funded healthcare for union members and their families starting in 2027, according to the union.

    “We won!” the union said in a statement just after 5:30 a.m. Friday.

    “We know our work is not done,” the statement read. “While we didn’t win everything we know we deserve, this strike allowed us to imagine our schools and classrooms as they should be with staffing levels high enough that our students can learn and thrive.”

    Schools have been closed since the strike began Monday, leaving families to scramble for child care and meals as teachers rallied for their first strike since 1979.

    Campuses will not reopen until Wednesday. The district called Friday a “transition day” for staffers, who were expected to return to their work sites. The district said schools would remain closed Monday for Presidents Day and Tuesday for Lunar New Year.

    “I recognize that this past week has been challenging,” San Francisco schools Supt. Maria Su said in a statement Friday.

    She added: “I am so proud of the resilience and strength of our community. This is a new beginning, and I want to celebrate our diverse community of educators, administrators, parents, and students as we come together and heal.”

    Teachers took to picket lines despite last-minute pleas from San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie and prominent lawmakers, including U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco), to keep classrooms open while contract negotiations — which began in March 2025 — continued.

    The union said it had been clear about its timeline.

    The San Francisco teachers’ strike could portend more labor unrest in California, where educators in other major districts, including Los Angeles, have signaled that they, too, are prepared to strike for higher pay, smaller class sizes and more resources.

    Last year, the California Teachers Assn., the statewide teachers’ union, launched the “We Can’t Wait” campaign, urging union chapters to band together to be forceful in labor negotiations.

    Members of United Teachers Los Angeles voted overwhelmingly last month to authorize their leadership to call a strike, increasing pressure as negotiations stall and as the Los Angeles Unified School District is planning for likely staff layoffs and budget cuts.

    In San Diego, the teachers’ union voted before winter break to authorize a one-day unfair labor practice strike on Feb. 26 if the San Diego Unified School District does not improve special education staffing.

    Unions representing educators for at least two Sacramento-area school districts — the Natomas Unified School District and Twin Rivers Unified School District — also voted this month to authorize strikes.

    The labor tensions come as COVID relief funds have ended and public school enrollment in California has plummeted in recent years, leading to reduced state funding.

    The San Francisco deal comes as the district is facing a $102-million budget deficit and is under state fiscal oversight because of a long-standing financial crisis. The district has said that if layoffs are needed to close the gap, employees will be given notices this spring.

    San Francisco is one of the nation’s most expensive cities, where the average home sells for nearly $1.4 million and the average monthly rent of $3,700 is double the national average, according to Zillow.

    Cassondra Curiel, the teachers’ union president, said in a statement this week that “the affordability crisis for those of us devoted to San Francisco’s next generation is real.”

    Curiel said rising healthcare premiums were adding to the financial strain, pushing teachers and support staff out of the district, which has hundreds of educator vacancies.

    The tentative agreement falls short of the 9% pay raise for teachers that the union had asked for.

    The deal, according to the union, includes an 8.5% pay raise over two years for lower-paid classified employees.

    The agreement also includes so-called sanctuary school protections for immigrant and refugee students and limitations on the district’s use of artificial intelligence.

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    Hailey Branson-Potts

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  • UC nurses cancel planned strike after reaching tentative deal with university

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    A planned labor strike by University of California nurses has been called off after the university system and the nurses’ union reached a tentative deal on pay and benefits, both groups announced Sunday.

    The four-year deal, between UC and the California Nurses Assn., covers some 25,000 registered nurses working across 19 UC facilities. The two groups had been bargaining over a new contract since June.

    The deal follows another one announced on Nov. 8 between UC and the University Professional and Technical Employees union, which represents 21,000 healthcare, research and technical professionals across the UC system. Those groups had been negotiating a new contract for 17 months.

    The nurses’ union had planned to strike Monday and Tuesday in solidarity with a third union, AFSCME 3299, which represents patient care technical workers, custodians, food service employees, security guards, secretaries and other workers at UC hospitals and campuses.

    Kristan Delmarty, a registered nurse at UCLA Santa Monica and member of the nurses association’s board of directors and bargaining team, said the union “organized for and won important patient protections” in the deal — which she said nurses will vote to approve this week.

    “Going into this round of bargaining, it was our priority to ensure UC nurses were given the resources to care for our patients and ourselves after years of short-staffing and under-resourcing,” she said. “We achieved our goal and now we stand together with our AFSCME colleagues, whose essential work demands the same resources guaranteed by a fair contract.”

    The nurses association said thousands of its members still planned to join AFSCME picket lines “while not on work time.”

    UC officials also lauded the deal. Missy Matella, associate vice president for systemwide employee and labor relations, said it “reflects the tireless work and collaboration of UC’s bargaining team, medical center leaders, and systemwide leadership working hand in hand with our dedicated nurses.”

    “We’re grateful to the nurses and the CNA bargaining team for their partnership and shared commitment to what matters most: our patients and the UC community,” Matella said. “This strong, forward-looking deal honors the vital role nurses play in delivering exceptional care and advancing UC’s public service mission.”

    AFSCME 3299 was still planning to strike. On Sunday morning, it posted a video to social media of members readying strike signs.

    “When we show up together, we win together. This is for our families, our patients, and for the future we deserve!” the group wrote on X. “Members and allies, bring your energy, see you on the line!”

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    Kevin Rector

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  • Striking hotel workers reach a tentative deal with the Beverly Hilton

    Striking hotel workers reach a tentative deal with the Beverly Hilton

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    Unite Here Local 11, the union representing hotel workers in Southern California who have been striking on and off for more than five months, said it has reached a tentative contract agreement with the Beverly Hilton that covers more than 500 unionized workers.

    The Beverly Hills hotel, longtime host of the annual Golden Globe Awards, is the sixth property to reach a deal with the union. It was among some 60 hotel sites in Los Angeles and Orange counties hit by a series of short rolling strikes after contracts covering more than 15,000 housekeepers, cooks, dishwashers, servers, and front desk workers expired June 30.

    The union has declined to give specifics on wages and other economic details of the agreements it has reached thus far, and the contracts have not yet been put to a vote by workers. Union spokesperson Maria Hernandez has said that the contracts — once ratified by workers at the various hotels — will raise wages, strengthen pensions and increase investments in healthcare.

    The Beverly Hilton announcement comes at the start of Hollywood’s awards season, with Golden Globe nominations expected to be announced Monday morning at the hotel.

    “The hotel and union are pleased to announce their deal just before what promises to be an especially celebratory awards season on the heels of the actors’ and writers’ own labor disputes,” the union said in an emailed statement Friday.

    Unite Here Local 11 co-President Kurt Petersen praised the hotel as “a leader in Beverly Hills” and urged the city’s other hotels targeted by the strike — the Fairmont Century Plaza and the Beverly Wilshire — to “quickly follow suit.”

    “Hotel workers at the Beverly Hilton are eager to kick off the awards season now that Hollywood is back in full swing because they have a contract with a living wage,” Petersen said in the statement.

    Peter Hillan, a spokesperson for the Hotel Assn. of Los Angeles, said the trade group couldn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

    Keith Grossman, an attorney representing a group of more than 40 Southern California hotel owners and operators in talks with the union, did not respond to a request for comment. The Beverly Hilton initially was part of that negotiating group but subsequently left the group, a union spokesperson said.

    The heated labor dispute has persisted for months. Noisy early morning picket lines, with hotel workers in red union shirts banging drums and blowing horns, have become a familiar scene at many L.A.-area hotels.

    Local trade associations representing hotels have criticized the strike as damaging to the regional tourism economy. Workers say they can’t afford to live near their jobs anymore in Southern California’s overheated housing market.

    This week marked an escalation in hotel worker protests. Housekeepers, cooks and other workers, as well as staff organizers with Unite Here Local 11, set up camp outside two hotels on Century Boulevard near Los Angeles International Airport early Wednesday morning.

    Dozens of tents line the sidewalk outside the Sheraton Gateway and Four Points Sheraton LAX; over the tents dangle string lights and clotheslines festooned with laundry, including lacy lingerie and baby onesies. In front of the Sheraton Gateway hangs a large yellow banner reading “Occupy.”

    Workers protest in shifts, with some sleeping there overnight. The union hauled in portable toilets for protesting workers, and at night when the temperature drops, union staffers help shivering and bundled-up workers light heat lamps.

    Housekeepers interviewed Thursday night said they are frustrated by months of tense negotiations and years of what they describe as heavier workloads for wages that are unlivable.

    Sheraton Gateway housekeepers said they make a $19.80 hourly wage. Unite Here Local 11 spokesperson Maria Teresa Kamel said that of the hotels in talks with the union, workers near LAX tend to have some of the most depressed wages.

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    Suhauna Hussain

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