SFUSD, SEIU Local 1021 Reach Tentative Three-Year Contract Deal

The cooks, custodians, and school secretaries who keep San Francisco's public schools running won a tentative contract this week after five months of negotiations, a near-unanimous strike authorization vote, and a sympathy walkout alongside teachers who had already shut down classrooms for a full week.

San Francisco Unified School District announced March 19 that it had reached a tentative three-year collective bargaining agreement with SEIU Local 1021, covering the roughly 1,060 classified employees in its ranks. The deal spans July 1, 2025 through June 30, 2028 and includes a total 10.5% salary increase broken into three steps: 4.5% retroactive to July 1, 2025, followed by 4% on July 1, 2026, and an additional 2% on July 1, 2027.

SEIU Local 1021 framed the financial package more broadly, saying members would see a 16% raise upon ratification. The union's calculation includes retroactive pay of 6% back to July 1, 2022, and an additional 10% retroactively to July 1, 2023, accounting for the gap between the two figures. The union also said workers would receive a $1,500 one-time bonus at ratification tied to ongoing payroll errors from the district's EMPowerSF system, which the union described as a "payroll debacle" that has burdened its members. SEIU additionally cited improvements to health and safety protections and a commitment to include workers in planning for affordable housing construction for district employees.

SFUSD Superintendent Dr. Maria Su called the outcome a product of shared values. "Our service workers play a vital role in supporting students every day, and this agreement recognizes their contributions while ensuring we continue to move forward together in a sustainable and thoughtful way," she said.

The deal becomes final only after SEIU members vote to ratify it and the San Francisco Board of Education approves it at an upcoming meeting. No ratification date has been publicly announced.

The agreement is the district's third labor settlement in roughly two months, following a deal with tradesmen's union Common Crafts for a 6% raise over three years and, days before that, a contract with the United Educators of San Francisco that ended the city's first teachers strike in nearly 50 years. SEIU Local 1021 members joined teachers on the picket line in a sympathy strike in February.

The rapid succession of deals marks a notable shift for a district that had repeatedly cited a severe budget deficit and state financial oversight, which began in 2024, when explaining why it could not meet union demands. The district has not disclosed the projected cost of the SEIU agreement.

The pressure from the union's rank-and-file was visible long before the announcement. Earlier this month, more than 20 SEIU members lined up at the podium during a school board meeting to demand action. Among them was Josh Davison, a chef at SFUSD, who told the board his kitchen was severely understaffed and that he could not bring on more workers without a contract in place. "We've been in contract negotiations all year," Davison said. "It's time to get it done."

SEIU called the outcome "the strongest agreement SFUSD classified workers have seen," and said it would move its members closer to pay parity with City and County of San Francisco employees in comparable roles.