Galvanized by the threat of retaliation from the district superintendent, Fairfield teachers walked off the job in early June.
Teachers who are angry over salary issues, the lack of any health benefit improvements in many years, and the district's refusal to bargain in good faith say the district has played games at the bargaining table for months.
Protestors create a sea of orange as they wave picket signs and march around the school board site.
"Teachers are fed up with the district talking about saving its $14 million surplus for programs," says Liz Priest, president of the 1,254-member Fairfield-Suisun Unified Teachers Association (F-SUTA). "It's time the district realized that teachers are the program. We can't continue with business as usual in the face of the district's disrespect for educators."
The 33-school Fairfield-Suisun Unified School District serves about 23,000 Solano County students in Fairfield, Suisun City and Cordelia.
Teachers are demanding an 11.7 percent raise for this school year to remain competitive with dozens of other Bay Area districts.
On the first day of the strike, June 1, more than 900 local teachers walked picket lines after school, then went home to find a letter from the superintendent threatening to fire them and/or cut pay and benefits as punishment for engaging in any work stoppage.
"This superintendent is adding insult to injury by her illegal and blatant bullying of teachers," says Priest.
The letter served only to galvanize the teachers.
Before joining the picket line at Sullivan Middle School in Fairfield, CTA President Wayne Johnson blasted the superintendent's "strident, intractable attitude toward teachers" as the spark that ignited teachers' wrath. "The community should be outraged at her arrogance."
An F-SUTA examination of the school district's own budget data showed the district could easily afford the teachers' 11.7 percent salary increase proposal for the current school year.
"This school board and superintendent are betraying the community's trust by hoarding millions of dollars in public money and forcing teachers to go on strike for a fair contract," says Priest.
Protestors create a sea of orange as they wave picket signs and march around the school board site.
