‘Thousands of public school teachers in San Francisco went on strike on Monday, the first public (state) school teachers strike in the city in nearly 50 years.
The strike comes after teachers and the district failed to reach an agreement over higher wages, health benefits, and more resources for special needs pupils.
The San Francisco Unified School District closed all its 120 schools and said it would offer independent study to some of the district’s 50,000 students.
Cassandra Curiel, president of the United Educators of San Francisco, said in a statement on Sunday night: ‘We are facing an affordability crisis.
‘Family healthcare premiums of $1,500 £1,098) per month are pushing excellent teachers and support staff out of our district.
‘This week, we said enough is enough.’
Teachers with the union were joining the picket line after last-ditch negotiations over the weekend failed to reach a new contract. Mayor Daniel Lurie and Democratic US Representative Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco had urged the two sides to ‘keep talking’ rather than shut down schools.
Teachers also held an afternoon rally at San Francisco City Hall. Negotiations resumed at midday Monday.
Curiel added: ‘We need to be clear. The proposals the district came with to address special education, healthcare and salaries just didn’t go far enough.
‘We will not sell out our students or our members to get a wage increase when we know the district has the money to do that,
SFUSD spokesperson Laura Dudnick said: ‘We were able to make progress in a number of areas,’
‘We don’t have unlimited money and have to make difficult choices.’
Meanwhile, pharmacy and laboratory employees launched a strike against Kaiser Permanente on Monday, as thousands of nurses and healthcare assistants began their third week of an Unfair Labour Practice (ULP) strike against the privateer healthcare giant.
Picketing took place at select Kaiser medical centres throughout the Southland, with ‘massive solidarity rallies’ planned in Los Angeles, Panorama City and Downey Kaiser facilities throughout the week, according to the United Food and Commercial Workers union (UFCW).
The UFCW members walked off the job at 7.00am Monday in protest against ‘Kaiser’s labour violations throughout negotiations that have prevented frontline healthcare workers from getting the fair contract they deserve.’
The union held a 10.00am solidarity rally at Kaiser’s facility at 4867 Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood.
Meanwhile, 31,000 members of the United Nurses Associations of California/Union of Health Care Professionals have vowed to stay on strike until they receive a satisfactory contract offer.
UFCW Southern California locals represent over 4,000 Kaiser Permanente frontline healthcare employees who work as pharmacy assistants, pharmacy technicians, clinical lab scientists, medical lab technicians and clinical and administrative workers.
UNAC/UHCP members include registered nurses, pharmacists, nurse anaesthetists, nurse practitioners, midwives, physician assistants, rehabilitation therapists, speech language pathologists, dieticians and other specialty healthcare professionals.
According to union officials, in December, UFCW and other unions with the Alliance of Healthcare Unions filed Unfair Labour Practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board, alleging Kaiser unlawfully refused to bargain in an attempt to bypass the agreed-upon national bargaining process and interfere with good-faith negotiations that had been ongoing since April 2025.
They say the contract covering UFCW pharmacy employees across Southern California expired on 1st November, 2025, and the contract covering UFCW CLS/MLT employees across Southern California expired on 1st February.
- Google executives are facing pressure from staff over the company’s ties to the federal government’s crackdown on immigration enforcement, which in recent months turned violent and deadly.
In an open letter published last Friday, nearly 900 full-time Google employees demanded more transparency over what the company’s technology is being used for inside the US government.
Google has contracts to provide federal agencies with cloud services and also has links to work being done on federal immigration enforcement.
In a call after the letter was published, a Google employee of seven years, identified only as Alex, said he found it ‘mind-boggling’ that Google is maintaining its ties with the immigration enforcement bodies.
The letter from Google employees follows a separate letter, published two weeks ago and signed by hundreds of workers at various tech companies including Amazon, Microsoft and Meta, calling for all tech companies to stop their work supporting the federal immigration crackdown.
In the last year, the Trump administration has stepped up its programme to forcibly remove immigrants, sending armed agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) into several cities.
Operations to carry out such removals led to two high-profile killings of US citizens who were observing federal agents.
In 2018, amid pressure from thousands of employees, Google abandoned a contract with the Pentagon known as Project Maven to develop more efficient drone technology for use by the US military.
Meanwhile on Sunday, tens of thousands of workers attended the Young Workers March in Washington DC.
The giant AFL-CIO trade union federation said: ‘We’re fighting for a better and more secure future for every young worker in this country. When we fight, we win!
The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) said in a statement: ‘Young workers today are being crushed by multiple, overlapping crises:
- An affordability crisis;
- A housing crisis;
- A healthcare crisis;
- A childcare crisis;
- A growing student debt crisis.
‘This is why the IAM union stands shoulder to shoulder to demand real action, real fairness and real solutions, so young workers have the same opportunities of past generations.
‘The IAM Union will keep fighting – in the streets, at the bargaining table, in the halls of power, and everywhere working people demand justice.’
- The United Auto Workers stated that it stands with IF Metall vehicle workers who are striking against Tesla in Sweden.
UAW Region 8 Director Tim Smith stated that the union fully supports IF Metall’s efforts to secure a collective bargaining agreement with the automaker.
Smith said: ‘UAW stands with IF Metall workers on strike against Tesla, fighting for a collective bargaining agreement.
IF Metall launched its strike against Tesla Sweden in late 2023 over the electric car maker’s refusal to sign a collective agreement.
The action has since been supported by other unions through sympathy strikes affecting ports, logistics, and service operations.
Pro-union groups in Sweden have recently expanded their outreach beyond Tesla’s facilities and workforce.
Activists have begun distributing informational leaflets against the EV maker directly on Tesla vehicles parked across Stockholm.
Organisers involved in the effort have argued that the leaflets are intended to simply inform consumers rather than single out individual owners.
When owners are present, however, activists stated that they explain the dispute verbally.
As a result of the strike action Tesla sales have slumped in Sweden.
In their last results, which were published on 2nd of January, like for like sales compared with the year to January 2025 were down by 71 per cent.