Preuss School educators walked off campus December 16th through 17th, in a two day strike protesting unfair labor practices by UC San Diego. The strike is the latest development in contract negotiations that have remained at a standstill since July of 2024. 

Three core issues are blocking progress, according to Dr. Weber, Preuss math teacher and chief negotiator for the faculty. Teachers earn 22.5% less than San Diego Unified educators despite working longer days and a longer year. Counselors work an extra hour and a half daily without additional pay. Lastly, counselors lack private offices for confidential student discussions. 

Ms. Majors, an English teacher on the Preuss negotiating team, emphasized the privacy issue. 

“The kinds of things that our counselors are having conversations with students, parents, and even teachers about, those things are confidential. Anyone who goes to see a therapist, anyone who goes to see a counselor, you’re not having discussions in the open.” 

Despite these disagreements, the December strike was triggered by something different. UCSD’s negotiating team leaked confidential information to faculty members, violating a confidentiality agreement. The breach led to the UC-AFT union filing an unfair labor practice complaint with the Public Employment Relations Board, the state agency that oversees labor disputes. 

“They leaked information that was confidential in the hopes of getting us to fight amongst each other, and accept a contract with salaries that are less than what we deserve,” Weber explained. “When people do things that are illegal, this is the only thing that you have. You have to show them that we expect good faith bargaining.” 

Staff morale has remained strong despite the lengthy deadlock. 

“We felt extremely supported by the students and parents who were able to come and support,” Majors said of the strike. The event brought significant media coverage and parental involvement. 

 “Anytime the public gets involved or there’s media surrounding it, I think that’s always helpful because too often these negotiations kind of happen in secret,” Weber remarked. 

UCSD has remained unresponsive throughout the process. Ms. Majors pointed to a disconnect between UCSD’s public image and their actions. 

“This feels to me like it is purposefully stalled out to try and just wear us down and get us to give up,” Majors said. “They like having the accolades Preuss gets, kids going to UCSD. But ways that they could help ensure that our students get the best quality teachers, that’s something they can have a direct impact on and they’re not doing it.” 

Weber noted the difference from previous negotiations, which concluded successfully with a different UCSD negotiator. 

“The negotiator we had for two years sort of had at least similar beliefs as what we teachers have. And I’m not sure this current one does,” he observed. 

Preuss negotiators are adamant about their demands due to past issues caused by their absence. 

“We had 10 open positions at the beginning of this year, which means we had 10 substitutes last term, we had five people quit before winter break in 2024. We had two people quit already so far. It’s not fair to you all and your families who are expecting this high-level education,” Weber explained. “We want to attract and retain the best teachers, but then the salaries have to be the same as other schools…When you’re 22.5% behind, it’s pretty hard to do that.” 

Majors further described the pay disparity. 

“We work a longer school year,” Majors explained. “And we literally have to pay to come to work every day. I have to pay to park. And we also pay for our health care premiums…we are paid less and we have to pay out more. It just isn’t fair.” 

The future remains uncertain. According to Dr. Weber, UCSD could impose a contract on Preuss after completing a fact finding process. This could potentially trigger an extended strike. 

“We have essentially accepted most of what the university has proposed, and we are holding fast to our three priorities,” Weber said. “We have given way more than we have got in the negotiations, but we’ve just come to a point in time where this is a line that we can’t cross.” 

For now, Preuss continues to operate under expired terms while its teachers wait for UCSD to respond.