About 80 trade union workers who maintain San Francisco’s public schools plan to strike Monday over unpaid wages and other grievances with the district going back two years.
Members of the San Francisco Unified School District’s maintenance group known as Common Crafts aim to picket outside SFUSD offices beginning at 6 a.m. Monday, according to the San Francisco Building and Construction Trades Council.
Common Crafts workers are hired from a variety of local trade unions, which include plumbers, roofers, ironworkers, laborers and a number of other trades, according to the union.
The one-day strike comes ahead of a hearing on Wednesday to discuss alleged violations of a labor agreement the school district signed with Common Crafts workers in October 2021. The union alleges that the district has failed to pay workers according to that negotiated contract.
Plumbers, carpenters, roofers and other school infrastructure staff will hold a press conference around noon outside the maintenance yards at 801 and 834 Toland St. before marching to district headquarters later on in the day.
“Common Crafts members will lay down their tools and take to the picket line Monday morning to voice their exasperation with a school district that has continually violated state labor law in its recent dealings with them,” the trades council said in a statement over the weekend.
The planned strike comes just over a month after SFUSD reached a tentative two-year contract agreement with the United Educators of San Francisco in which credentialed teachers will get a permanent raise of $9,000 the first year and a 5% salary increase the second year.
SFUSD did not immediately respond to a request for comment.