In the gleaming white building of the San Francisco Archdiocese, there is a conference room where teacher union negotiations are taking place. The Archdiocese’s negotiation team—composed of school administrators and Archdiocese’s leaders—sit on one side of the room. The teachers’ union—including the president and reps—sit on the other side.

In a typical meeting, members will introduce proposals, ask questions, and caucus with their respective groups to discuss how each item would affect their membership. Several rounds of this occur in a single negotiation.

As for how the process is coming along?

“Negotiations are…going,” union rep Jackie Grealish said. “We have come to tentative agreements on several smaller items but we still face some big issues around salary and working conditions.”

As a union rep, Grealish’s job is to understand the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) (a “massive” document outlining their contract) in order to best support union members through the highs and lows. She joined the union in 2021 when she witnessed the support and solidarity they offered to teachers, and two years later was nominated as a rep in the annual elections.

And right now, during negotiations, Grealish is helping to spearhead that solidarity by advocating to improve the working conditions of her colleagues.

A big part of that is, of course, salary. “We cannot share specific numbers but we’re hoping for a fair salary increase that supports teachers through times of unprecedented inflation…” Grealish said.

As of press time, prices are 23.3 percent higher than they were from before the COVID-19 pandemic, and the economy has become increasingly uncertain due to recent Trump administration policies–particularly his tariffs– and the volatile stock market.

Grealish cites the extremely high cost of living in the Bay Area.

Additional items on the table include class size, personal/sick days, grading time, and event supervisions, “to name a few,” Grealish said. “It not only affects us teachers and counselors and librarians, but it also affects you guys [students] in the classroom. I had a class last semester at 32 kids in one block and 20 something kids in my other one. They got very different experiences.”

Ben Ekhaus ’25 said I do support the union because teachers are essential workers and they deserve their rights and benefits the union brings.”

With respect to a rapidly technologizing society, the issue of AI has become a significant negotiation point.

Grealish explained how teachers are forced to take a significant amount of their time researching AI, running student work through AI checkers, documenting AI responses to their own assignment prompts, comparing student work to AI answers, and more, all to make sure students are actually learning. That’s labor that deserves to be compensated, the union asserts.

Ekhaus continued, “I feel like every teacher deserves to be paid well.”

However, the Archdiocese’s negotiation team, which includes school administrators like president Tim Reardon, cite funding constraints.

Like Grealish, who points to Bay Area costs as a major impetus for higher salary requests, Reardon uses the exact same concern to justify the school’s inability to meet their demands.

Reardon said, “The main concern is sustainability… Some of the union’s proposals involve significant increases in compensation or benefits, which— if not carefully planned—could put pressure on school budgets or lead to tough choices down the line. The administration’s role is to ask, ‘Can we afford this, not just now, but five years from now?’”

Funding and money allocation inevitably brings up questions about recent campus renovations, which have cost millions upon millions. When asked whether such projects have affected negotiations, Reardon tied the issue back to long term finances.

He said, “Not directly. Renovations and capital improvements are usually funded through a separate stream— either from fundraising, capital campaigns, or designated facilities budgets.”

In addition, “That said, any large investment in facilities requires long-term financial planning…It’s all part of the same big picture: investing in the future of the school while also caring for the people who make that future possible.”

The fact that the teachers’ union exists in a private Catholic setting is an anomaly in itself. Jeff Isola ’98 noted that the San Francisco Archdiocesan Federation (SFAF) (which encompasses Archbishop Riordan, Junipero Serra, Sacred Heart Cathedral, Marin Catholic, and Archbishop Mitty) is the only union in a Catholic secondary system west of the Mississippi. The claim is verified by the American Federation of Teachers.

Michael Vezzali-Pascual ’88, who’s been a union member since he was eligible and a former rep and treasurer for around 13 years, said, “The Church teaches that organized labor is a right and they support that right for people to organize collectively for wages and benefits. I think that’s an im- portant value….”

At Riordan, all tenured teachers receive union benefits–such as salary increases–regardless of membership.

However, many teachers become dues-paying members out of solidarity and for the legal protections the union offers.

In fact, Riordan faculty has among the highest union membership out of the SFAF, with around 57 teachers part of the union.

Vezzali-Pascual explained that “The union has certainly supported me by creating a very stable situation for us to work in. [The] salary array allows me to know and plan out my finances… allow[ing] us to know exactly where we are….”

Though as of press time negotiations have hit a bumpy road, both sides emphasize that they’re not necessarily at odds.

In interviews, both union and admin said they ultimately share the same goals, at times saying certain phrases nearly verbatim of each other.

Vezzali-Pascual said, “As a veteran of…negotiating teams, I feel optimistic because the process is the process. It’s one of those things where we’ll end up where we need to be, but the route to get there is just full of twists and turns.

“We [union and admin] all want the same thing, which is successful schools. We may have different visions of how to get there, but in the end, I think I’m optimistic because…we have a really good opportunity and chance to make life better for everybody.”

Reardon echoed, “I think the core issue is that both sides share the same goal—supporting students and maintaining strong schools— but sometimes differ on how to get common ground where we can meet those needs in a financially realistic and sustainable way. There’s good faith on both sides, but also real limitations and competing priorities.”

Amidst stagnating talks, union leadership–including Grealish– organized a prayer meeting outside the building on April 9 at 3:15 p.m., right when school is busiest with departing students and parents picking kids up.

Grealish explained that’s the point–the union wants as many eyes as possible on them in order to raise awareness with parents and family members who care about the education their children are getting, “so that they get involved as well.”

Teachers went up to car windows to explain their cause, as Grealish and union member Brian Kosewic ’16 gave motivational speeches.

They ultimately tied it to their future. One teacher said they live in an apartment with six other people so they can have a good life for their future family.

Grealish concurred, “We got a little bit of a price hike in terms of what they’re willing to give us for salary, but it’s really not meeting what we need in order to stay in the area.

“I’m born and raised in the city, but staying here on this salary, the mild salary increase is not necessarily sustainable,” Grealish said.

“I would love to send my [future] kids to Catholic grammar school, Catholic high school, but [based on finances] I don’t know if that would be an option for me.”

At press time, the Archdiocese had not responded to a request for comment on this story.