5:30pm, 350 Rhode Island St – Suite 100 South
on the 19, 22, 55 bus lines and near the 33 and 9
Remarks by Chapter President Josh Davidson on Board Policy 3514.1: Hazardous Substances, adopted by SFUSD Board of Education tonight:
I’m encouraged to see the boarding considering this policy and hope that you will adopt it tonight.
As you may know, SFUSD used to have 15 full time staff working on hazardous materials management, abatement, and safety training. We call these folks “Asbestos Worker IIs” because they were hired and trained in a simpler time when we didn’t know as much about the health impacts of pesticides, cleaning chemicals, materials used in science labs, and so forth.
Our expanding science program, aging facilities, and increasing safety standards have changed the work of these members over the last twenty years, and attrition from retirement has left us with three remaining staff. The remaining staff are also near retirement.
School safety presents unique challenges, which means that it’s hard to find folks that we can hire — especially on our salary scale. In our parcel tax conferences with your senior staff, one of the priorities we identified was building a training program to develop existing staff to take on this work, with a goal of reaching 6 positions by 2020 and building a pipeline for future staffing.
I hope when you confer with your staff about this policy you will encourage them to allocate resources to build out this program.
In the 2016-2017 Contract, SEIU added language to support donation of sick leave to your coworkers. Unlike some other units, we don’t have a limited “open enrollment” period or a “bank” to manage, instead we collect donations for each individual who needs leave.
How to Donate
First, let us know you have leave available that you’re willing to donate.
If you already know whom you want to donate to, you can download the donation form here and turn it in to any steward.
Otherwise, we’ll keep you informed when members need donations, and ask you to fill out a donation form for each member in need.
One of our stewards will collect the forms for each member in need and deliver them to Labor Relations.
Donations will be used in a cycle, 2 hours at a time. Any unused leave will be returned after the member’s needs have been met.
How to Request a Donation
Just let any steward know you need help. Gesner Nazaire at Cesar Chavez is your steward in charge of catastrophic leave.
You must meet the eligibility requirements:
While you’re waiting to get your appointment for the 1424/1426 exam, you should stop by the library and check out a study guide!
Here’s a list of what’s available by branch.
Stay tuned for news about prep classes very soon
There’s lots of important info in your contract to help you be happy and productive at work. Read all about it
Outside of bargaining, we’re working with the District, the Families Union, UESF, Close the Gap, and Jobs with Justice on a community hiring plan that will improve outreach to underserved communities. SEIU is taking a leading role in developing this plan, and we really want broad member participation in putting together this plan and the materials and outreach around it. Please get in touch with Josh if you’re interested!
Help us get information on what our members spend on housing, health, and commuting so we can make better economic proposals at the bargaining table.
Join us on Wednesday nights from 5-8pm at the union hall, 350 Rhode Island Street, to reach out to citizens in California, Arizona, Alaska, and Nevada and ask them to take steps to protect our health care.
As of March 8, the Education integration Specialists have joined our union! These members provide crucial family and community support at schools throughout our district. As part of this unit election, new member and steward Tracy Brown will be joining our bargaining team.
Do you want to bargain, or beg for scraps? We need every school and worksite to raise their voices for the pay parity we deserve. City classified workers just negotiated a 6% raise over the next 18 months, which would leave us 21% behind if the school district doesn’t step up.
Tell your coworkers, tell your supervisors, tell the school board: It’s time for pay parity.
Join the CAT team to get inside info on bargaining and updates on workplace actions and other things you and your coworkers can do to make sure the district treats us with respect. Call Arlene Sharp at 415-370-0498 or click here!
