Oakland Educator Association hold a rally on the first day of the strike to announce their grievances
The strike is still ongoing
Teachers and community members held a rally at Oakland city hall to commemorate the first day of the Oakland Educator Association (OEA) strike. The union authorized a strike with a deadline of Thursday May 4th. Thursday has come and gone and the strike was authorized. All schools in OUSD are shut down, with teachers at the picket lines throughout the city schools. The reason why they are striking includes higher wages for the teachers because of macroeconomic conditions of things like rent. The Union also wants to implement Community schools within the district, which will help their unhoused student population and the teachers supporting them.
“This fight isn’t just about wages and benefits, it's a fight to have quality community schools, the fight to address student homelessness. It's a fight to address the health and safety in the classroom,” said Keith Brown, Executive Secretary-Treasurer of Alameda Labor Council, an organization that supports the Oakland Educators Association.
President of the Oakland Educator Association Ismael Armendariz states why they are fighting for students who need housing, “We are bargaining for the common good because when students who are unhoused come to our classroom, that responsibility falls on you and we are saying it needs to fall on the system.”
According to the Y-Plan, a team of researchers from University of California Berkeley and 11th grade students in Oakland High School’s Law and Social Justice Pathway program, in their paper Tackling Unhoused Student Policy in Oakland and Beyond states,“OUSD currently has over 450 identified unhoused students and over 1,000 that are unaccompanied and in need of housing services and support from local institutions. Under the McKinney-Vento law, school districts are required to provide unhoused youth with full services and to use certain funds for specialized programming and support.” OEA feels like the implementation of this program is insufficient for the unhoused students' needs.
Supporting students with extraordinary needs with no government aid has the teachers overworked, causing them to leave their position. “Teachers are tired. Low pay, the hard work,” said Jennifer Brouhard, district 2 school board member. “The People (at the rally) talked about finding housing for our students.”
In a report by Chris Kaiser-Nyman called“Putting Data to Work to Support OUSD Teacher Retention, “The most common areas identified as driving teachers from the district were ‘Salary’, ‘Adequate resources / supplies’, ‘Bay Area housing / affordability’, and ‘Work-related stress,’” said Kaiser-Nyman’s report. “Between 61% and 67% of teachers indicated that these categories were factors that make them want to leave, and fully 31% of teachers indicated that ‘Bay Area housing / affordability’ is a ‘Strongly Leave’ factor.”
While people were speaking at the podium in front of city hall, the bargaining team was behind them. According to Brown, “Oakland Educator Association has a Bargaining team that is over 50 members. They are teachers, librarians, nurses, and substitute teachers. These are the people that are working in our classrooms every day,” said Brown. “They know what the issues are and really know what our students need to be successful.”
According to Kaiser-Nyman’s report, “Teachers place high value on their relationships with students and their families as well as their relationships with coworkers, with over 80% of teachers identifying these relationships as factors keeping them at OUSD.”
Valarie Bachelor, District 6 school member, expressed frustration at the lack of resolve amongst school board members to come to the table for a deal with the teachers. “My husband and I sat across from each other at the kitchen table last night as I kept crying because we could not get adults in the room to have a conversation,” said Bachelor. “And I know how hard it is for you all to even gather your students to have these hard conversations. What are we missing as a school board? What are we missing as a district? What comes to mind every single time is leadership.”
VanCedric Williams, district 3 school board member, assured the excited union crowd that he, Valarie Bachelor, and Jennifer Brouhard have the teacher's best interest at hand. “You have three strong labor candidates that represent you at every board meeting,” said Williams. “And we’re not backing down. We are going to stand up and fight. And we are going to fight and win.”
Bachelor is also optimistic that a deal will be done soon with the teacher's and students' needs at the forefront of this new contract. “I know the effect it has on your children and families. I know the individual sacrifices you make being on the picket line. But I know this town will support you. This is a union town.”
At the end of his speech at the podium Armendariz proudly proclaims, “It's our duty to fight for freedom. This is the way. May the force be with you. This time the teachers are striking back.”