Despite new contract offer, Oakland teachers’ strike likely to continue Monday

OAKLAND — The ongoing teachers strike that has brought the education of roughly 34,000 students at Oakland schools to a halt will likely continue Monday, with union officials calling the district’s latest contract offer confusing and “full of errors.”

And although the district has now extended two consecutive offers for a new labor contract without receiving a real counterproposal, the faculty union — whose teachers have been on strike since Thursday — says it isn’t impressed.

The strike will not end, union officials said Saturday, at least until the school board allows district leaders to bargain openly over “common good” proposals intended to provide racial and environmental justice to students.

“The sticking point for us, the whole time, has had less to do with a potential tentative agreement” for salary raises, said Vilma Serrano, the union’s bargaining chair. “It has everything to do with the (district’s) practices that have led us to this point.”

Formal in-person negotiations have stalled since the Oakland Education Association accused the district of “unfair labor practice” for not agreeing to bargain over the “common good” proposals.

For its part, the district appears to address to some of the teachers’ “common good” demands in its latest offer, such as training staff to de-escalate mental health crises and dedicating school time to foster a more positive social climate.

The proposal also includes modest pay bumps for some school counselors, pre-K teachers and other roles.

On the salary end, both sides acknowledge they are close to a deal for 10% retroactive raises for OEA members, plus a one-time bonus of $5,000 and salary increases ranging from 13% to 22% next school year.

Still, the union is demanding back-and-forth bargaining for other “common good proposals,” including free transportation for all students and shared governance of school sites by teachers and families.

Union officials blasted the latest district proposal Saturday, saying it was “full of errors and missing key components that make it difficult to negotiate.” They called on the district to return to the bargaining table this weekend or expect the strike to continue on Monday.

The errors amount mostly to typos — one section of the contract proposal, for instance, appears to mistakenly suggest that the class size for middle school P.E. would be two students.

The Oakland Unified school board so far has not authorized the district to negotiate with teachers over the “common good” demands, and President Mike Hutchinson insists such broad-ranging policies have no place in a labor contract.

In a news release on Saturday, the district said negotiations should remain focused on core bargaining issues such as salaries.

“With students back in school, we can then work together with community partners and elected officials to support the issues in the Common Good proposal,” the district said in the release.

Striking teachers argue the common good changes are needed sooner rather than later to support students who have emerged from the pandemic struggling to readjust socially and academically to in-person schooling.

The union says there are not enough staff members trained to break up or de-escalate fights that occur between students, and many campuses are run down and have malfunctioning equipment.

The strike is just the latest strife at Oakland Unified following a long and painful fight last year involving school closures and a seven-day faculty strike in 2019 over wage negotiations.

Although campuses remained open Thursday and Friday, the walkout has upended learning and schedules with just three weeks remaining in the school year.