[Eighty-eight percent of teachers had voted to strike, after it
became clear that our demands were not being taken seriously at the
negotiating table. “Teachers feel disrespected and fed up.” said
Sarah Wheels, a fifth-grade teacher.]
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COMMON GOOD A BIG SUBJECT IN OAKLAND SCHOOLS STRIKE  
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Daria Marcantonio Kieffer and Micaela Morse
May 19, 2023
Labor Notes
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_ Eighty-eight percent of teachers had voted to strike, after it
became clear that our demands were not being taken seriously at the
negotiating table. “Teachers feel disrespected and fed up.” said
Sarah Wheels, a fifth-grade teacher. _

Oakland teachers and support staff went on strike May 4, shutting
down 85 schools. They returned to work May 15 with a tentative
agreement including 10 percent raises and more power in Community
Schools. Members are voting on the agreement until Monday., Ella
Teevan

 

The 3,000 teachers and support staff of the Oakland Education
Association walked out May 4, shutting down all 85 elementary, middle,
and high schools.

Community support was immediate and widespread—parents were already
familiar with the cuts the district had inflicted or proposed. Many
donated food and joined our picket lines to walk, dance, and chant in
solidarity.

Eighty-eight percent of teachers had voted to strike, after it became
clear that our demands were not being taken seriously at the
negotiating table.

The Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) had stonewalled
us—delaying meetings, failing to show up, and presenting vague
proposals that demonstrated a limited understanding of what’s really
needed day to day in schools.

“Teachers feel disrespected and fed up.” said Sarah Wheels, a
fifth-grade teacher and union site representative. “We’ve been
bargaining for six months, but our superintendent only came for the
first time to meet and bargain with us last Sunday.”

RATS, ASBESTOS, SEWAGE

For months, the district had made no concrete proposals to reduce
special education caseloads and class sizes, and insisted that it
didn’t want to bargain over safety—which is a top issue for union
members, students, and families.

Among our safety concerns are gun violence, asbestos and lead, mice
and rat infestations, raw sewage, and leaky roofs.

Parents, educators and principals have asked the district to address
these issues repeatedly, for years, with no result. Now we were
proposing enforceable language in the contract.

Until the strike date was set, the district’s offer of a retroactive
pay increase for 2022-2023 was the equivalent of 1.4 percent for most
members. OEA members would need a 22.79 percent increase in pay to
reach the average Bay Area teacher salary.

“We don’t get raises after 10 years, and we’re worse paid than
all the neighboring districts,” explained Diego Feliciano, a second
year school psychologist. “Once people hit 10 years, everybody takes
off. Some people leave before, because the pay is too low. All my
mentors are leaving.

“It’s rough. We love the kids, and we know how much they go
through here in Oakland.”

DIVIDE AND CONQUER?

As the strike became a real threat, the district increased its pay
proposal. But in an effort to divide the union, it offered a two-tier
raise that would mostly benefit veteran tenured teachers—leaving out
66 percent of the membership, including substitute teachers, untenured
teachers, nurses, social workers, speech pathologists, psychologists,
and counselors.

Our top demands: a living wage for teachers and staff, equitable class
sizes, and expanded special education services.

Since our students’ living conditions shape the circumstances in
which they are trying to learn, we were also fighting for “common
good” demands on housing and transportation, environmental justice
and school safety, reparations for Black students, and a school
culture that practices restorative justice instead of discipline and
punishment.

Under community pressure, in 2021 Oakland’s school board had voted
to designate all schools with over 40 percent Black students as Black
Thriving Community Schools. This designation came with a commitment to
support those schools—but the district failed to follow through,
even though it had already allocated funds. Our contract would force
OUSD to make good on its promise.

Our previous strike, four years ago, lasted seven days. We won a pay
increase for teachers, a small reduction in class size at some
schools, and some support for newcomer students, but it was clear we
still had a long road ahead.

Since then we’ve been fighting the district’s austerity agenda.
OUSD was planning to close 11 schools over two years, but only managed
to close three—we kept the rest open.

50-MEMBER TEAM

An important new dimension of this year’s contract campaign was that
the OEA organized over many months to build a 50-member bargaining
team.

Every member of the bargaining team was voted in by co-workers at
their school site or in their specialist group to represent that
group’s interests and experiences, as well as to solicit feedback
and communicate progress on the bargaining process.

Not every school had the capacity to elect a bargaining team member,
but individuals from the bargaining team have worked hard to get
feedback from and information to those sites as well.

Besides keeping members updated, this “big bargaining” gives
teacher representatives a chance to bargain over the needs in their
specific specialties. For example, special education teachers can
speak to their caseloads and the types of resources they need.

As the strike approached, the district began its miscommunication
campaign. The evening before the strike, it sent out an email
claiming, “We believe that a deal with our Teachers’ Union is
within reach.

“As our negotiations continue today,” wrote the district, “we
are discussing additional topics of great importance to OEA leaders,
including topics that are not mandatory subjects of bargaining.”

In reality, OUSD had been absent from the bargaining table for the
past two days and had left the OEA waiting for seven hours the
previous Sunday.

Within days, the power of the threat of strike forced the district to
increase its salary proposal substantially. OUSD also verbally agreed
to other significant wins, but when the strike began we were still
waiting for it to put them in writing.

COMMUNITY SCHOOLS

One big demand still outstanding was about community schools.

Community schools are public schools that provide additional services
and support—such as before- and after-school programs, learning
opportunities for family members, health programs, and collaborative
efforts with other organizations, based on the needs of a particular
community.

The point is that children’s ability to learn and thrive at school
depends on their lives outside of school.

OUSD had already received a state grant of $85 million to spend over
two years on community schools, to include shared governance,
community support services, and restorative school culture. We were
demanding a say in how this money was spent.

At first, the district outright rejected this demand. School Board
President Mike Hutchinson had claimed the district didn’t have the
authority to bargain over common good demands such as how this
community school money would be spent.

Several days into the strike, the district escalated its media
tactics, sowing confusion about what was going on at the bargaining
table.

“The media is saying that we are trying to bargain over things we
have no right to,” said Timothy Douglas, a fifth-grade teacher and
one of the OEA bargaining co-chairs. “That’s not true. Contracts
have expanded over the years, and many other districts are bargaining
over and winning demands exactly like those in our common good
proposals.”

Educators unions in San Diego and Los Angeles, for instance, recently
won contracts giving them a say in how state funding for community
schools should be spent. “It is absolutely within our scope,”
Douglas said.

A strike rally May 5 brought together teachers, staff, families, and
community supporters. “We refuse to leave anyone behind,” Douglas
said. “The district has sleek graphics, but we have each other. This
is hard, and we need to keep communicating with each other. We need to
keep standing together. We refuse to let the district divide us.”

TENTATIVE AGREEMENT

We returned to work May 15 with a tentative agreement
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that we’re voting on now. The vote ends Monday.

Among the highlights are many common good demands, including a new
citywide Community Schools Steering Committee where educators, staff,
parents, and students will hold a majority. We also won a 10 percent
raise for all members. The tentative agreement also provides for
additional nurses, counselors, and librarians, and art teachers.

_Daria Marcantonio Kieffer and Micaela Morse are Oakland educators._

A version of this article appeared in Labor Notes Issue #531, June
2023 [[link removed]]. Don't
miss an issue, subscribe today.
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* Oakland Education Association; Oakland Unified School District;
Community Bargaining;
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