On Monday, February 9, more than 6,500 members of United Educators of San Francisco (UESF) launched an open-ended strike against SFUSD—the city’s first teachers’ strike since 1979. 

But UESF members weren’t alone. They were joined by nearly 1,000 classified professionals in SEIU Local 1021, who are also currently in bargaining, as well as 250 members of IFPTE Local 21, which represents SFUSD’s administrators and principals. 

SEIU 1021 members are the district’s lowest-paid workers—from custodians and food service workers to clerks. Despite the hardship of losing pay, a majority of the union’s workers joined the sympathy strike to support their fellow workers.

Educators and allies showed up at over 130 sites around San Francisco to hold picket lines and show their support for this historic fight.

UESF’s issues are universal and affect our larger communities, including critical protections for immigrants in the form of sanctuary schools, which the district just agreed to in the last few days; the use of AI in public schools; and chronically understaffed, under-resourced special education programs.

The strike continues Tuesday for a second day, as the district refused to meet the teachers’ demands at the bargaining table.