Issue link: http://educator.cta.org/i/1539593
to the table — including reducing class sizes, making staffing improvements and investing in special education — eventually winning a restructured salary schedule to address recruitment and retention issues, as well as a historic agreement that allows the union to prevent the district from requiring any testing of students not required by law. "We have eliminated unnecessary testing — there's no agree- ment like this anywhere in the country," says Davis Milevsky. During sometimes-contentious bargaining, then-Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg inserted himself into the process, help- ing to mediate the final deal on the eve of SCTA members going on strike ( full story captured in this video at bit.ly/3HaYDxc). Just when it seemed like things might be turning the corner, Steinberg's buddy Aguilar refused to honor the agreement he had just signed, with the school board closing ranks around their superintendent and the county office of education threat- ening to get involved. Suddenly, the power of the Sacramento political establishment was aimed at SCTA, and union educators organized to fight back. "We were always on the defensive before, but we knew we had to go on the offensive to win," Davis Milevsky says. "e next four years were trench warfare." 2019 e One-Day Strike Superintendent Aguilar's continued belligerent behavior, enabled by a complicit school board, resulted in repeated vio- lations of SCTA's contract and other agreements. e situation got so bad that Sac City educators held a one-day unfair labor practice strike in April 2019 to call attention to the ongoing vio- lations of the contract and bad faith bargaining by Aguilar and the school board and call on them to obey the law. "Honor our contract that provides resources and smaller class sizes for our students. at's what we want," Fisher said during the one-day strike. "We mutually agreed to a contract that meets the needs of our students. Aguilar, with the support of the board, is trying to break that agreement. We won't break our promise to our students." e strike was featured on the national CBS Evening News that night, and the successful action was a good test of their structure, the commitment of their members and SCTA's ability to turn out community allies and supporters. "is unfair labor practice strike in the middle of our contract showed the power we have when we rise together for each other, our students and families, and for what's right," Fisher says. "is one-day strike helped us to realize our strength and focused our preparations to strike again for longer, if needed." 2020 Victory on Election Day SCTA leaders quickly realized they could only get so far with Superintendent Aguilar and a school board that refused to hold " A bigger bargaining team increased representation and transparency in our bargaining process, and built trust among our membership — the bedrock for all our progress." — SCTA 1st Vice President David Fisher SCTA leaders David Fisher and Nikki Davis-Milevsky 36 cta.org Organizing