July 11 Update:
We encourage all FUDTA members to review our information slideshow above and to watch the video of our July 10 presentation (questions and answers are included after the presentation in the video).
The video will take some time for Google Drive to process, but it should be available to view some time this evening.
Questions? Feel free to email fusdcola@gmail.com.
7/9 UPDATE: The below funding information has INCREASED significantly. Come to our informational meeting (Monday 11am-12pm) to learn more.
Read this article to learn more about the change in funding that occurred on June 30, 2022.
Do you want COLA?
Sign your name to our coalition so our numbers show our strength!
Recruit others to sign their names to build our momentum!
We will collectively vote NO on any tentative salary agreement that does not meet or exceed COLA.
If our numbers grow large enough, our coalition will have the power to send any unfair tentative agreement back to the bargaining table.
Together, we can win COLA!
Additional funding FUSD received for COLA: +5.07%
Ending funds from the 20-21 school year: +$65 million
how much more will FUSD tell its employees to sacrifice?
Who are we?
We are FUSD educators who are collectively calling on FUSD to give us our full COLA in salary negotiations.
This coalition is beginning as a grassroots movement from the rank-and-file educators of FUSD. Our views are our own.
Our goal is to grow our coalition so that any tentative agreement will go back to the bargaining table until our demand is met.
We will collectively vote NO on any tentative salary agreement that does not meet or exceed COLA.
Who we aren't: We are not FUDTA leadership. Although the members of our coalition come from various levels of FUDTA, Our efforts are not organized by leadership, nor do we consult with leadership on our aims.
We are supportive of the FUDTA bargaining team. We recognize it is they who will do the work to secure a financially just tentative agreement. We view our efforts as supportive of FUDTA leadership and all FUDTA members even though we act independently in communicating what our expectations are for a fair salary resolution: COLA and nothing less.
Why now?
We built this coalition for the 2021-22 school year out of concern that we would not secure COLA if we do not make known our position in advance of any tentative agreement being reached. It is necessary we build this coalition and push our goals now, because otherwise we will once again find ourselves pressured to accept less than COLA—as has happened year after year in the past.
What is COLA?
Short answer: COLA (Cost Of Living Adjustment) is additional funding that the State of California gives to school districts to account for inflation.
Long answer: When inflation occurs, the spending power of a dollar weakens. This means it costs more to feed your family, pay your rent, see the doctor, and even commute to work—yes, meaning it costs you more to make less money!
Inflation affects school districts, too. Despite this, school districts must fulfill their responsibility to educate children. To that end, the State of California provides additional funding to school districts to account for the rising cost of living (see above link). These extra funds are a Cost Of Living Adjustment (COLA).
If the link above is confusing, here is the important part for the 21-22 school year: Assembly Bill 130 (Chapter 44, Statutes of 2021) authorized a compounded COLA comprised of statutory COLA adjustments attributed to fiscal year 2020–21 (2.31%) and fiscal year 2021–22, and an additional 1% increase in LCFF base grant for an effective increase of 5.07% from 2019–20 to 2021–22 funding levels.
Why do employees need COLA?
COLA is the only thing keeping workers from taking an earnings cut. If a 2021 dollar is worth $0.95 in 2022, every worker is taking a pay cut of 5% because their salaries were based on the 2021 dollar (or, worse, older years). Employees must not allow wages to be outpaced by inflation.
What is FUSD's responsibility?
FUSD has argued that they withhold COLA from employees because other costs have increased. It costs more to buy desks and books, for example. But why are the employees of FUSD not considered a resource which has become more expensive? If it costs more to manufacture a desk or to print a book, does it not also cost more to ensure your educators and support staff are not homeless or hungry?
Workers are a cost of doing business for employers. We are the "L" in COLA! FUSD knows this. When a contractor says their construction team works for higher wages now, FUSD pays the higher cost. So why does district management abandon their own employees as they become less and less financially secure?
FUSD as an employer has an obligation to ensure its employees can afford to live. Yet, year after year FUSD withholds COLA from employees. The educators of Fremont's children struggle to make ends meet. They struggle to pay rent, to pay for childcare, to see the doctor, to save for retirement, to send their own children to college, and to even start a new family of their own!
FUSD as a local education agency (LEA) has a responsibility to ensure Fremont's students receive quality instruction. Every year, FUSD files a Declaration of Need for Fully Qualified Educators with the State of California because they cannot fill dozens of vacant positions. Source: 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, and 2014. (Records for earlier years are unavailable online.)
Why can't FUSD attract and retain enough fully qualified educators? We must asked ourselves: Why would anyone want to enter and stay in the education profession if year after year their salary effectively decreases? How can a school district attract and retain qualified educators if the selling point is management will choose to demand our collective, personal, financial sacrifice every year? Fremont's students deserve excellent educators, but FUSD is not incentivizing them to come to and stay in Fremont.
FUSD's fiscal decisions
Can FUSD afford to give COLA to employees? YES.
FUSD has an ending fund balance of $65 million
This is more than $31 million over what they were anticipating!
You can see FUSD's revised budget from December 2021 here (page 2). Note that FUSD increased expenditures as they increased revenues, yet our salaries have not increased. Even after contributing $12.8 million from the ending fund balance (originally $77 million), FUSD still has over $65 million remaining from the previous school year. What should they do with these leftover funds? Will the ability of workers to survive ever be a priority?
Should FUSD give COLA to employees? YES—OBVIOUSLY!
FUSD has historically withheld COLA from its employees. We cannot take earnings cuts for eternity.
Take 2018, for example: FUSD received 3.7% in additional funding from the State specifically for COLA. FUSD refused to offer employees higher than 0.71% in a cost if living adjustment. While FUSD was demanding employees take an earnings cut of about 2%, the Associate Superintendent tried to give himself a raise of 17%. In response to FUSD's demand that educators take an earnings cut, FUSD's educators almost went on strike. The strike was narrowly averted by a last minute offer of 2.5% from FUSD. Educators begrudgingly accepted even though they were still taking a earnings cut.
What power does this coalition have?
FUSD is required to negotiate salary with FUDTA.
FUDTA's bargaining team will work to reach a tentative agreement with FUSD's bargaining team.
The agreement is tentative because it ultimately needs to be ratified by a membership vote.
This means the rank-and-file have the ability to reject any deal they think is unfair.
And we're the rank-and-file.
If a majority of educators join this coalition, then we have the power to reject any proposal that does not meet or beat COLA.
If we don't use this power, history has shown us we will not receive COLA, and we will effectively take a pay cut—yet again.
Our message is clear:
We will collectively vote NO on any tentative salary agreement that does not meet or exceed COLA.
"The Living Wage"
Well I'm a working woman and a single mother too
I got a full time job, it seemed the only thing to do
Now I work five days, it's a 40 hour week
And here's my life, come close and take a peek (2x)
It's $1200 a month before the SSI and tax
The take-home pay is $900 and 1/2
And the rent takes half of that, leaving $475
With a hundred for the groceries to keep us all alive (2x)
From the $375, take out $50 for the heat
And $50 for the lights and phone, utilities complete,
From the $275 take my public transport pass
To get me to and from this job, for which I bust my ass (2x)
But I haven't finished yet, no, my babies are so young
That one is not in school yet, he has not yet begun
So I pay $200 to a mom who lives near me
So she can spend ten hours a day with him -- instead of me
So she can spend 10 precious hours with him - instead of me
And add to that the clothing bill, the cleaning bill, the shoes
Prescriptions and medicine, birthday gifts and Brownie dues
And take all of that from the sum of $75
And your guess is as good as mine just how we stay alive (2x)
But the system is so thoughtful and the bankers are so kind
They've given me some credit cards for when I fall behind
So I make my monthly payments, a mere 29 to go --
Just looking at this nightmare makes me want to stay at home (2x)
They're trying to get welfare mothers into full time jobs
If we aren't thrilled to leave the home, they call us lazy slobs -
Offer minimum wage, no benefits, and no childcare, naturally
So more can join the weary ranks of working poor like me (2x)
Oh I'd like to take each potbellied pol who talks that way
And let him try to take a walk in my shoes for a day,
He'd be screaming and crying and begging and irate
To raise the living wage now, before it is too late (2x)
For I'm a working woman and a single mother too
I left my full time job, it seemed the only thing to do
And until that happy day that the living wage is raised,
I'll do odds jobs, stay with my kids, and home is where I'll stay
This rich land can afford it, we have got to find a way
We've got to raise the living wage -- we've got to find a way