SF School District Workers Call in Sick
Submitted on Mon, 08/29/2005 - 2:40pm
Disclaimer - The following article is reposted here because it is an issue with some relevance to the IWW. The views of the author and the publisher do not necessarily agree with those of the IWW and vice versa.
Suzanne Herel and Heather Knight, Chronicle Staff Writers - San Francisco Chronicle, Monday, August 29, 2005.
(08-29) 09:47 PDT San Francisco (SF Chronicle) -- A number of custodians, cafeteria workers and secretaries for the San Francisco Unified School District made good on their threat to call in sick this morning, the first day of school, to underscore their dissatisfaction with their union’s stalled contract negotiations.
District spokeswoman Lorna Ho said the absences were not expected to cause a significant disruption. “We planned for the worst when we heard there might be a sick-out,” Ho said.
She said it was too early to tell how widespread the action was. “We clearly do have some people at the central office who are not here,” she said.
All the custodians, secretaries and cafeteria workers at Malcolm X Academy elementary school in the Bayview were absent today, so volunteers were answering phones and serving breakfast in the cafeteria.
The central office had sent Krishna Kassenbaum, a special education specialist, to Malcolm X to help the teachers. “I’m here to help support the teachers and the staff and the parents and the students,” said Kassenbaum, for whom it was the first day on the job with the district.
“Working with kids is a joy any way you go about it,” he said. A spokesman for the Service Employees International Union 790, to which the disgruntled school workers belong, said he had heard rumors of a sick-out but that his organization did not condone or sanction such action.
“Obviously, if they’re sick, they’re sick. What can they do?” David Canham said. One of the most obvious effects of the sick-out could be felt at lunchtime. “If we don’t have any cafeteria workers, we won’t have any hot food,” Ho said. The district had encouraged parents to pack lunches for their children today. “Anyone who doesn’t have one will be provided a sack lunch, but it won’t be hot,” Ho said. The one-day sick-out pales in comparison to the threat of a strike, an issue that workers are due to vote on in two or three weeks.
The 1,300 school district workers represented by SEIU 790 have gone 3½ years without a raise and don’t have the same health benefits for their dependents that other district workers have, union spokesman Thomas Dewar said.
District officials say they don’t have the money to meet the union’s requests.
E-mail the writers at [email protected] and [email protected].
Read the story at it's source.