Macleay
Oakland teachers are striking for higher wages and more support staff in schools.
On Thursday, February 21st, after eighteen months of negotiations and working without a contract, Oakland teachers went on strike. The 3,000-member strong Oakland Education Association, which called the strike, represents about 2,300 classroom teachers and hundreds of counselors, psychologists, speech therapists, home and hospital teachers, in a district of some 36,000 students. Teachers are requesting a pay raise above the inflation rate (12 percent over 3 years), smaller class sizes, and better student supports such as nurses and counselors.
On day one of the strike, a fellow parent at my son’s high school, Oakland Tech, was staffing a table loaded with food donated in support of those walking the line. She said that there had been an outpouring of neighbors offering help that morning. Striking teachers at the other entrance of the block-wide campus were receiving free coffee from the shop across the street, thanks to an anonymous donor.
Striking teachers were receiving free coffee from the shop across the street, thanks to an anonymous donor. Teachers on the picket line told me they had to shout to be heard over the constant honking of horns in support from the thoroughfare traffic.
Early picketers reported that only a couple dozen people of Oakland Tech’s two thousand-member student body had entered the school. The teachers on the picket line told me they had to shout to be heard over the constant honking of horns in support from the thoroughfare traffic.
A few blocks away at Piedmont Avenue Elementary, the scene repeated itself on a smaller scale.
I found parents, neighbors, and most of the teaching staff on the sidewalk with signs. Their food donation table was just as full, and neighbors were walking up with more contributions at ten o’clock. My son’s first grade teacher reported that only about a third of the students had gone inside to attend classes, which were being staffed by substitutes and district administrators. She felt that the children were attending school mostly because their parents were single and needed the child care and not because of any disagreement with the strike.
One picketing teacher told me, “The Mayor supports us, the state is with us, City Council is with us.” But teachers seemed less certain about the level of backing for the strike from our pro-charter school-dominated school board. Some teachers in the city's thirty-four charter schools distributed fliers online calling for a wildcat sickout on Monday to support the striking public educators.
The church-led Oakland Community Organizations, Inc. came out last month in favor of the teacher pay raise but not for the Oakland teachers’ call for an end to charter schools and site closures. They also did not clarify their position on “Solidarity Schools,” which the union has set up to care for younger children whose parents need help to not cross the picket line.
The City of Oakland, which is separate from the School District, has supported these alternatives for parents by also providing safe spaces at recreation centers and libraries.
After three to four thousand teachers, parents, and supporters rallied at City Hall on Thursday, teachers marched to the school district offices.
There, they questioned a fact-finding report that concluded the district cannot afford the raise the teachers are demanding, and questioned the accuracy of the budget numbers.
The discussion revolved around two possible ways the pay raise could be granted. One would be
Macleay
Supporters set up a food table for striking teachers in Oakland last week.
if the school district was willing to revisit their budget, the other would be help from the State of California. The new governor, Gavin Newsom, has promised increased funding to schools, but how much is not clear.
A recent strike by Los Angeles teachers was resolved after the district there agreed to grant raises and the union was willing to give them the time to find the funds. So far, the Oakland School Board has not shown the will to make that kind of commitment.
The union sent supporters an evening email that simply said: “A tremendous thank you to our beautiful city from the teachers of Oakland. Let's do this again tomorrow!”
Friday looked a lot like Thursday, albeit with fewer high school students joining the picket line. On Saturday talks broke off after only an hour. The District claims that the union walked away; the teachers accuse the management of stalling. Monday, day three of the strike, started with the threat of rain. Parents were on line over the weekend to keep the picketers supplied with food and coffee. The food table sports a rain roof. Many high school students have drifted away from the picket lines, but twenty to thirty turned out to support their teachers.
Overall school attendance is stunningly low. At their weekend press conference, district management avoided answering how low. The alternative “solidarity schools” are doing well enough to warrant a disclaimer from the district in their Sunday message to the parents that they are not official. A union rep claimed on the radio this morning that 90 percent of teachers and 97 percent of students are not in school. Our State Superintendent of Public schools will be in town today for a possible restart of negotiations. But even if they reach an agreement today, the membership has twenty-four hours to consider it. There will probably be a day four and maybe five of this strike.