United Educators of San Francisco

On about every second Tuesday, the San Francisco Board of Education has an early evening meeting at 555 Franklin Street on the corner of McAllister Street.



These meetings tend to be preceded by protestors with signage on surrounding sidewalks whose issues have varied over the years.



For the last couple of years, the noisiest groups tended to be the JROTC supporters and the elderly Asians who would chant "we want neighborhood schools" for hours.



This Tuesday's protest was organized by the local school union, United Educators of San Francisco.



They are facing unprecedented budget cuts and layoffs as part of the ongoing bankruptcy of the public sphere of California, partially engineered by Schwarzenegger and his owners.



The crowd of teachers and bus drivers was charming as usual...



...as they made their way into the School District headquarters for the Board meeting.



The current contract talks between the union and the school district are going terribly, according to a number of people I spoke to at the demonstration, and the next step would be court-ordered arbitration which could conceivably be followed by a strike.



District 8 Supervisor Candidate Rafael Mandelman (below) was there with his father, and it was a pleasant surprise seeing him out of campaign mode and attending as an interested citizen.



If I lived in District 8, he would definitely get my vote.