Oakland teachers are poised to strike on Thursday, a walkout that could shutter schools and affect 34,000 students unless a deal is reached between the district and the teachers’ union.
The Oakland Education Association, which represents 3,000 of the city’s educators and school staff, announced the strike late Monday afternoon. The move came after months of negotiations. Since October, teachers have been pushing for increased pay, reduced class sizes, and higher safety standards, along with additional support services for students.
“We promise you, we’ve done everything we can to avert this strike,” said Ismael Armendariz, interim president of the union, in a Monday press briefing. “The district has truly failed our students and the time for us to act is now.”
On Tuesday evening, teachers began to pick up their posters, flyers and materials from the union office — and as of 7 p.m., the two sides were still at the bargaining table. Earlier Tuesday the district released a statement with its latest proposal offering starting teachers a salary boost from $52,905 to $63,604 a year. For mid-career and veteran teachers, that jump was even larger: an increase of $11,342 and $15,432, respectively.
But union officials, including Vilma Serrano, co-chair of the union’s bargaining team, said those numbers were brought to the public, not the negotiators, and as of Tuesday night, the union hadn’t received those details in a full, written proposal. Union officials said that was just another example of “bad faith” negotiations. In March, the Oakland Education Association filed an unfair labor practice complaint against the district, claiming it had canceled discussions, come unprepared to meetings, and failed to provide counter proposals to the union’s offers.
The allegation has been countered by the district office in recent weeks. In a statement it said officials “are committed to continuing to work in good faith toward a contract that works for both sides.”
“We’re moving in the right direction, but the devil is always in the details,” said Serrano. “We can’t say whether we’re fully in agreement or not, because we don’t know the details. It’s just frustrating that we’re at this point when we’ve been bargaining for seven months, but I am hopeful that there will be movement.”
Tahnee Camacho, a mother of two children at the district, said she was disheartened that the negotiations had taken this long, and that she supported the teachers in their strike efforts. Camacho had seen what happens when teachers leave the school district because of low pay: for four months, she said, her 5-year-old daughter had a revolving door of substitutes.
“The OEA members are not asking for a lot,” Camacho said. “And I’m a product of Oakland Unified. This has been a long-term issue.”
Still, other parents are not as supportive, with some raising flags about the district’s financial solvency. In recent years, Oakland Unified has been battered by school board decisions to shutter schools — and then keep them open — while facing both declining enrollment and tumbling budgets. Nearly 650 parents had signed an online petition opposing the strike by Tuesday night.
“Students aren’t bargaining chips!” wrote one parent alongside their signature. “Adults need to learn how to communicate and negotiate just as they ‘allegedly’ teach students to do.”
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