Oakland teachers strike enters second day; state superintendent of schools offers to mediate discussions

The Oakland teachers’ strike entered its second day Friday, though a top state official has offered to mediate negotiations after both sides strongly maintained their positions throughout a tension-filled day Thursday.

State Superintendent of Schools Tony Thurmond offered Thursday to step in as a mediator, just as he did in 2019. As of early Friday, neither the Oakland Educators Association nor Oakland Unified School District has publicly agreed to the mediation.

“We are disappointed that the parties could not find an agreement in time to avert a strike,” Thurmond said in a statement. “We observed how hard both sides worked and will start immediately working with the parties in a formal mediation capacity. Our goal is to help the parties reach an agreement and to end the strike so that students can return to class as quickly as possible.”

The teachers union, which is urging the district to raise teachers’ pay and provide better resources for students, returned to the picket lines at 7:30 a.m. at many of the more than 80 schools in the district. The union announced a rally set for 12:30 p.m. Friday at United For Success Academy at 2101 35th Avenue.

Both sides deflected the blame for the labor dispute throughout the day Thursday. OUSD School Board President Mike Hutchinson pointed a finger at the union during a news conference, saying that the district was ready to return to bargaining.

“We want to continue negotiating. We don’t want a strike,” Hutchinson said. “But (the union) left the table and they’ve broken off discussions — not us.”

Meanwhile, during a livestream Thursday night, Vilma Serrano, co-chair of the union’s bargaining team, said the school board hadn’t given its own district bargaining team “full authority to bargain.”

“It has been really deeply frustrating to get to this point after seven months of bargaining,” Serrano said. “We ask you, Oakland, to stand with us and to push the school board to have a meeting to give the OUSD bargaining team the authority to bargain.”

Breaking: bargaining update!
Urge the OUSD School Board to Bargain with Oakland Educators follow this link:https://t.co/M2KHUz9Utc pic.twitter.com/LJh6ahTYKg

— Oakland Education Association (@OaklandEA) May 5, 2023

The district maintained its position Thursday that the hang up with contract negotiations was not entirely about compensation but instead centered around the OEA’s “Common Good” proposal.

The district’s latest proposal included a 10% retroactive raise for OEA members, a one-time bonus of $5,000 and salary bumps ranging from 13% to 22% going into next school year. With such a raise, first-year teachers would see their salaries jump from $52,905 to $63,604, while veteran teachers’ salaries would increase from $94,314 to $109,746. Counselors, psychologists and school nurses would also see their salaries bumped, with increases of nearly $10,000, $13,000 and $8,000 respectively.

According to the district, some issues in the union’s proposal — like ending student homelessness and providing transportation for all OUSD students — are not within the scope of what a publicly-funded school district can implement.

“It’s important to remember that these topics are not mandatory subjects of bargaining,” district officials said in a statement issued Thursday evening. “We want to discuss these important topics, but we want to do so when the topics should be discussed – as part of a Board-led policy discussion. While we agree that the issues raised in the Common Good proposal are important, this discussion should not hold up an agreement on significant pay increases for our OEA employees.”