SAN FRANCISCO, May 20 (Xinhua) -- Nearly 600 teachers in East Bay in northern California went on a strike Monday to demand a pay rise to accommodate skyrocketing living costs, the KPIX5 TV outlet reported.
The teachers in the New Haven Unified School District (NHUSD), which includes 12 schools across Hayward and Union City in the East Bay area with about 11,400 students, took to the picket lines for the first time ever in NHUSD history, after negotiations between the New Haven Teachers' Association and the NHUSD over wages failed on Sunday.
The teachers' union is seeking an increase of 10 percent in the wages of its teachers over the next two school years.
"We also know there is no great time for a strike ... it's about the impact of when we can get our message across," Joe Ku'e Angeles, president of the teachers' union, told KPIX5.
The NHUSD only agreed to a 1 percent raise in the teachers' salaries for the 2019-2020 school year, which it called "the last, best and final" offer for the protesting teachers.
It added that their teachers are already paid the highest with an annual 96,000 U.S. dollars across the county of Alameda in East Bay.
The school district said it is bringing in substitutes and administrators to keep the schools operational during the work stoppage.
Monday's walkout was the latest strike called by educators in northern California to push for their improved living conditions, following a day-long teachers strike in Sacramento last month and a seven-day strike in Oakland in February.
