SEIU 1021 has been bargaining for a successor contract with Vacaville Unified School District (VUSD) for approximately nine months.
During these negotiations, VUSD management persisted for months in the senseless demand that SEIU give up current healthcare benefits for all future unit members. This would force underpaid classified workers’ families to pay over $1,500 a month for basic healthcare coverage.
On Wednesday, January 8th, VUSD withdrew its threat to end family medical benefits for new SEIU employees. This is a win for workers and is a direct result of our ongoing pressure on VUSD management; however, they are ...
SEIU 1021 has been bargaining for a successor contract with Vacaville Unified School District (VUSD) for approximately nine months.
During these negotiations, VUSD management persisted for months in the senseless demand that SEIU give up current healthcare benefits for all future unit members. This would force underpaid classified workers’ families to pay over $1,500 a month for basic healthcare coverage.
On Wednesday, January 8th, VUSD withdrew its threat to end family medical benefits for new SEIU employees. This is a win for workers and is a direct result of our ongoing pressure on VUSD management; however, they are using this withdrawal to force workers to accept an insultingly low fair wage increase for 2025-26.
VUSD cited budget concerns for denying modest wage increases to classified workers, yet management awarded themselves larger raises—exceeding the 1% proposed for SEIU workers. Over the proposed contract term, management has secured wage increases twice as large as those offered to workers.
For many months, SEIU has attempted to address ongoing instances of physical violence endured by paraprofessionals and students. These repeated altercations are due to the inappropriate placement of students with a history of aggressive behaviors in classrooms without the necessary staff support and staff training.
Management has failed to collect the necessary data to understand and address aggressive and disruptive behaviors and unacceptable classroom ratios of students to paraprofessionals.
VUSD ignores repeated reports of assault in the classroom, leaving staff and students to endure hostile environments without concern for their safety from those in power. This negatively affects every student’s ability to learn, in addition to the threat of bodily harm.
Reasonable demands that management continues to dismiss include a reevaluation of existing IEPs, which is needed to determine the best placement of students with a history of these behaviors, and critical staff training necessary to keep themselves and other students safe.
This continual unwillingness of VUSD management to address violence in classrooms escalated when VUSD management sent a letter to SEIU paraprofessionals ordering them to continue working in unsafe conditions unless they “suffered the loss of limbs.”
This is a tone-deaf, demeaning, and illegal demand and further highlights their lack of respect for the important work of paraprofessionals. In response, SEIU made a specific proposal to address violence towards workers and students on January 8th. No one should be bitten, kicked, punched, have desks flung at them, or be assaulted in any way at VUSD. Our primary focus is ensuring that the classroom is a safe and healthy place for all.
While SEIU will continue bargaining in good faith, VUSD management continues to stall negotiations, withholding crucial data and shifting blame to hardworking classified workers while sidestepping urgent safety concerns.
VUSD management has also engaged in a variety of illegal activities. SEIU has filed Unfair Labor Practice Charges with the Public Employment Relations Board of the State of California to address these illegal activities, and additional charges are being filed. These include open and persistent interference with union business.
As a result of their ongoing stalling and dismissal of members' safety concerns, our SEIU membership has voted to authorize the SEIU negotiations team to call for a strike at VUSD should management persist in illegal activities and fail to bargain in good faith.
Planning is underway for an imminent SEIU strike. The SEIU Executive Board and Central Labor Council have sanctioned this strike.
Please assist us in avoiding a strike and disruption of school services by telling the VUSD School Board that students and workers deserve a safe work environment.