Power concedes

1

• Power concedes
• nothing without a demand.
• It never did and it never will.
• Frederick Douglass
• (1818-1895)

NOVEMBER 4, 2009
2

• Union Timeline 2009-10

Nov-Dec 2009
JanApril 2010
May-July 2010
Aug to Nov 2010

• SDUSD budget discussions initial District
  spin
• SDEA bargaining cont.

• Layoff fight continues
• Districts demands for bargaining concessions

• Fighting back against bargaining concessions
• Anti-union ballot measures
• School Board election
• Possible parcel tax
• Bargaining cont.

• Possible Layoffs
• SDUSD budget doom gloom cont.
• SDEA bargaining cont.

NOVEMBER 4, 2009
3

• News from School Board Budget Workshop - October
  20, 2009
• 2010-11 Deficit The range of possibilities
  goes from bad to catastrophic
• Next years budget hole could reach 200
  million!
• Bill Kowba (Interim Superintendent) There is
  no more low-hanging fruit.
• James Masias (District Chief Financial
  Officer) Most of our expenses are people, so
  its very difficult to make cuts that dont
  involve people.
• I dont think the publics even got the idea
  that we are in trouble, said trustee John de
  Beck, who wants to alert parents and students
  early about the trouble that lies ahead.
• The Districts march towards layoffs, increased
  class sizes, program cuts, salary and benefit
  take backs, and general attacks on educators has
  already begun!

NOVEMBER 4, 2009
4

• Have we heard this before?
• What the School Board Told Us Two Years Ago
  March 12, 2008
• We are not going to bankrupt this District."
  Katherine Nakamura quoted in Voice of San Diego,
  March 10, 2009 after the School Board voted to
  issue pink slips to over 900 educators.
• Fact These layoffs were not necessary and ALL
  layoffs notices were rescinded after a year-long
  effort by SDEA, parents, and community supporters.

NOVEMBER 4, 2009
5

• Have we heard this before?
• What the School Board Told Us Last Year March
  10, 2009
• The plan (the Districts March 2009 budget plan)
  hinges on San Diego Unified being able to
  negotiate with its unions to boost class sizes,
  furlough employees for four days, and increase
  what workers pay when they go to the doctor's
  office. If the unions do not agree to those
  plans, the school district could resort to
  closing a dozen schools with low enrollment or
  eliminating high school athletics, visual and
  performing arts, or popular programs that take
  students to Old Town and Balboa Park. Voice of
  San Diego, March 10, 2009
• Fact These cuts were NOT necessary if we had
  succumbed to their doom and gloom predictions we
  would have agreed to unnecessary furlough days,
  salary cuts, and benefit take backs.

NOVEMBER 4, 2009
6

• We LOSE this fight if
• SDEA members sit on the sidelines and watch.
• We buy in to the doom and gloom predictions of
  certain School Board Members and District
  administrators.
• We fail to engage and activate parents and the
  community in our common cause.
• We start pointing fingers and fighting each
  other.
• We get scared and begin to think the worst is
  inevitable.
• We dont engage, as a union and as a community,
  in collective ACTIONS!

NOVEMBER 4, 2009
7

• We WIN this fight if
• We focus on both the short term and the long
  term.
• We work with parents to find common interests
  and issues that we can work on together.
• We remain confident and patient.
• We stay strong and persist and resist
  attempts to divide us.
• We commit to strengthening our worksites (by
  building effective site teams and maintaining
  two-way communication).
• We focus on engaging members at our worksites
  in collective actions that give them a voice in
  their futures.

NOVEMBER 4, 2009
8

• Short Term Strategy
• Define the terms of the budget debate
• The School Board has announced that on November
  17th they will begin to gather input from parents
  and community members through a series of Town
  Hall meetings and other methods (blogs,
  suggestion cards, etc.).
• SDEA members and supporters must get our message
  out NOW and set the terms of this debate (e.g.,
  keep cuts from our classrooms, no layoffs we
  have already lost too many educators, etc.)
  before the other side does.

NOVEMBER 4, 2009
9

• Long Term Strategy
• Continue to build capacity at our worksites
• SDEAs power is concentrated at our worksites,
  not in this hall. As ARs, leaders and staff, we
  MUST strengthen our worksites
• Strong Site Goals
• Active and engaged AR
• Complete functioning site team (AR, CRs,
  Organizers)
• Regular Site meetings
• Regular ACTION in support of union objectives
• Regular site evaluation and reporting of union
  actions

NOVEMBER 4, 2009