CIF – Southern Section Soccer Ref Strike
A Writer’s Strike – An Auto Worker’s Strike – Now a Soccer Ref Strike!?
By: Bryant Wu & Alan Huang
Since the start of the winter 2023-24 soccer season, the Southern California Soccer Officials Association (SCSOA), the largest organization of soccer referees in Southern California, has been boycotting against the California Interscholastic Foundation (CIF). Beginning around November 6th, SCSOA unit Ventura issued a statement declaring a general boycott of the 2023-24 season of the CIF’s Southern Section after a year of repeated radio silence from CIF representatives on discontent about their work contracts. In the resulting movement consisting of over 1,000 participants, people demanded an increase in pay and proper representation in future contracts with the CIF.
Within the SCSOA, six out of its twelve ‘units’ declared a general participation in the boycott. This has led to games in November and December going unsanctioned. The sudden vacuum in official staff available meant that many soccer matches had to be hosted by impromptu referees, or delegated to unofficial ‘scrimmage’ matches.
In statements released by the SCSOA they stated how the CIF’s Southern Section has not granted soccer referees a significant pay raise in the past two decades, while other sports such as softball, basketball, baseball and football all received significant fee raises in the CIF’s Southern Section Recent Blue Book. A claim that the union has made on their official website. They also listed the fee difference in the Southern Section compared to other subsequent CIF areas such as the ‘City Section’ – which has an average fee of $88 per game for soccer referees, while the Southern Section has an average of $75 per game. In relevance to the recently increasing cost of necessities and fuel, the SCSOA has claimed that these numbers have led them to strike in order to gain a livable pay.
On the other side, the Southern Section’s commissioner, Mike West, made his own statements shedding light on the situation, “This last time around, the committee wanted to get things equitable for all [officials] across the board,” he remarked in a December episode of the Southern Section ‘Sitdown’ podcast. He continued, “…the goal is to get all head officials, at least, to a $35 per hour rate. Some sports were already there, including aquatics and soccer. Those officials did not get a bump [in pay], but saw the other sports get raises.”
As of January 11th, 2024, there has not been any reconciliation between the SCSOA and the CIF. Responses to the boycott by CIF Southern Section state that the SCSOA and other contracting organizations must wait until the end of their contract in 2025 in order to negotiate a new pay structure – to which the SCSOA has denied all involvement in a contract binding them to wait until 2025. With the Southern Section unwilling to give in to SCSOA demands, and SCSOA in turn unwilling to back down, the boycott may last as far into 2025.
