History of the United Administrators of San Francisco
In May of 1970, the organizing group of San Francisco School Administrators and Supervisors gained recognition from the new national Union, the American Federation of School Administrators, a part of the AFL-CIO family of Unions. San Francisco became the third member local following New York City, local #1 and Chicago #2. Today there are over 151 active locals of the American Federation of School Administrators, serving both large urban and small suburban administrators groups. The President of AFSA sits on the AFL-CIO governing board and has a voice in AFL-CIO activities.
The United Administrators of San Francisco, (UASF) began with the organizing work of individuals from the various administrative divisions of our school district. Membership in UASF was voluntary at that time, but enough members were recruited to give UASF exclusive bargaining rights for our administrative unit. Soon the elected leadership of the new union sat down and developed our first collective bargaining contract and salary schedule. Under the leadership of Dr. Lane DeLara and Ms. Diane Gordon, our union local took its place as a member of the San Francisco Labor Council. In the late 1990's a vote was taken of our membership to have a closed shop, whereby all members of the bargaining unit became members of UASF. In 2017, the United States Supreme Court struck down the closed shop clause in all public employee labor contracts. Today, UASF is proud of the fact that 98% of all members of the bargaining group have chosen to continue their membership in our local union. The present leadership of our local union continues to represent all the divisions within our bargaining unit and has maintained and worked to improve our collective bargaining contract. Our membership in the American Federation of School Administrators has provided our members with many privileges and benefits and have allowed our local leadership to gain valuable information from other locals across the country.
In 2001-2002, The United Administrators of San Francisco, Emeritus Local #3-R was formed to allow those retired administrators of San Francisco Unified School District to remain active in local and national union activities. Under the leadership of our founding President, Jennie Horn, the UASF-E has represented over 170 individual members in this local. Various scholarship funds have been set up by the UASF-E in memory of former members and educators and cover a number of scholarships awarded annually to students and teachers in our school district. The UASF-E meets quarterly and communicates monthly to our members on issues of importance and common interest. The UASF-E is the second oldest retired based local in the American Federation of School Administrators.
James S. Dierke
President - UASF 1999-2012
Vice President - AFSA 1999-2021