San Francisco ESL SFIE Teachers To Strike-Join the Picket Line/Solidarity Needed!
Submitted on Mon, 03/17/2008 - 12:38am
Bay Area IWW members are involved in the following struggle:
On Monday, March 17, at 8:30 a.m. a strike will begin at San Francisco
Institute of English (3301 Balboa, corner of 34th Avenue in SF's Outer
Richmond District) and will continue until the following demands are
met:
- Return of fully-paid health care that was removed in 2004 with the promise of its return when financial conditions improve, which they have -- in addition, this past week SFIE sold another school property that had been on the market for $1,395,000.
- An across-the-board 30% increase in wages, with automatic future cost-of-living-adjustments because there have been none for over 12 years.
Please join our picket line in front of the school
building, as well as contribute to our strike fund (e-mail back for
details).
If you can't make it to our picket line, you can also help us by phoning (415-750-1755), faxing (415-750-9939), or e-mailing (info [at] sfie.net) the school to express your solidarity and insist that management acquiesce to our demands.
Solidarity!
WHY WE’RE STRIKING
We, the teachers at San Francisco Institute of English (3301 Balboa
Street in the Richmond District), are striking for a livable wage and
the return of health care benefits. SFIE is an English as a Second
Language (ESL) school with a teaching staff of 11. We have not had a
cost-of-living increase in over 12 years; employee health care was
taken away in 2004 with the promise of its return if enrollment
returned to pre-September 11, 2001 levels (changes in Homeland Security
procedures caused the number of student visas to temporarily drop –
affecting the entire ESL industry). The number of students is back up
to that previous level, but we have yet to get our health care back.
Conditions in the private/non-profit ESL industry have been in steady
decline for years, made worse because this sector has traditionally
been non-union.
Despite SFIE being a 501(c)(3) non-profit
corporation, its absentee executive director and his invisible
assistant director pay themselves a combined $250,000 a year, while
teachers make less in wages than either of them make in benefits alone.
We are demanding the following:
- Across-the-board 30% wage increase – with annual raises and cost-of-living adjustments
- Return of fully-paid health care benefits
- Employee policy in writing, including job security and grievance procedures
Management has refused to negotiate, so we have no choice but to
strike. Please join our picket line, donate to our strike fund and
offer your solidarity to help us to organize the non-union
private/non-profit ESL industry.
PLEASE SUPPORT US
Email - SFIEteachers [at] yahoo.com