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FOR YEARS, Twin Rivers Unified School District in Sacramento has struggled to attract and retain educators, which has had an impact on every school in the district despite unprecedented funding and resources to hire and retain educators. It had also allocated increasingly less to student services and support, resulting in poor learning conditions.

Twin Rivers United Educators (TRUE) leadership knew that the outcome of their bargain in 2022 was
critical for every Twin Rivers student and their families.

True Slide

“Our students should be able to count on having teachers in True Slide 2the classroom when they come to school,” said
TRUE president Rebecca LeDoux. “Our district spent years disinvesting in educators. They dedicated less and less to educator salaries and benefits and direct support for students. We saw the powerful impact of expanded bargaining teams, including our neighbors in Sacramento City Teachers Association, and decided to try it in Twin Rivers.”

TRUE leaders and members were determined to win transformative change in their district. On Jan. 23 of this year, members voted in historic numbers to ratify their tentative agreement with the district. The victory
came after an arduous bargaining process and remarkable campaign to build solidarity among its members — some 1,500 strong — as well as families and community.

The campaign was a casebook study of traditional and new methods of bargaining to build power. TRUE’s open and transparent bargain and often adversarial relationship with the district did not include the old, confidential dealings with management TRUE used extensive, inclusive site-based organizing, community outreach, and employed data, earned media, technology and social media to update the entire bargaining
unit and community.

This included:
• An expanded bargaining team from 5 to 27 members and
counting (TRUE is aiming for 1 rep from all 55 sites).
• Bargaining sessions that met on Zoom and after school
so more members could participate at the table.
• Continuously informing members/parents/community of
what was going on through
• Immediate bargaining session recaps (Zoom and
Facebook Live videos livestreamed into a members only
Facebook group);
• Emails that reinforced the livestreamed videos and
shared all proposals from both the district and the
chapter, including financial analysis (data from EdData
and MIT living wage statistics combined with realworld
examples of members not being able to make
ends meet [from a member bargaining survey]);
• All-member text message blasts ahead of all
bargaining updates;
• Site-based bargaining discussions led by site reps and
TRUE leaders who visited half of all school sites in the
first two months of the school year;
• Clear, concise data and visuals showing district
disinvestment in students/educators over time, wage/
income gaps, locals and management demands/
responses, etc.;
• Virtual parent forums, school board meetings, and
earned media during a historic school board action.

Salary Agreement

TRUE’s transparent approach and focus on organizing won hearts and minds and built a formidable team that showed up and spoke out in huge numbers time and again at rallies, picket lines, school board meetings and more. One rally in October 2022 at a school board meeting drew 800 members as well as community allies, who demanded that the district invest in educator recruitment and retention and support for students. Members were organized and committed to striking; this strong structure ensured a victory with an unprecedented settlement in January.

Jackie Howard, TRUE vice president and lead negotiator, said, “At every stage of our bargain, TRUE members turned out to show our power and raise our voices together. We opened up our bargain and brought all members along from day one. This created a solidarity we have never experienced before in our union. That’s how you win for students, educators, and public education.”

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