Ray of hope in Oakland, but strike on next week
The Oakland worker strike that has shut down most city services will stretch into next week, but a bit of progress was made Friday when a union said it was willing to engage in mediation after Mayor Libby Schaaf declared an impasse.
“We reached out to City Negotiators to select a mutually agreeable mediator, despite the Mayor’s decision to prematurely declare impasse in negotiations,” Rob Szykowny, chief negotiator for Service Employees International Union Local 1021, said in a statement.
The union had previously proposed informal mediation, but now says it is willing to go through the more formal process spelled out under impasse procedures.
A union representative said workers will stay out on strike
nonetheless.
Nearly 3,000 city workers have been on strike since Tuesday morning, picketing City Hall and shutting down most city services and buildings. Police, fire and other emergency services continue operating.
The city and union agree on the first year of the contract, which includes a 4 percent raise for workers. The second year remains contested.
The city gave the union what Schaaf called Oakland’s “last, best and final offer” Thursday night, but the union counteroffered early Friday just after midnight.
In the city’s final offer, workers in the second year would see a guaranteed 1 percent raise and an additional 1 percent increase would depend on whether the city met revenue targets. The union’s counteroffer asked for a 4 percent raise in the second year to be phased in by 1 percent each quarter.
Schaaf said that proposal posed an unacceptable “level of financial risk” to the city.
“The offer we have made to SEUI is fair and responsible to both our workers and to the public, the residents of Oakland that rely on basic city services every day,” Schaaf said. “The offer that we have made exceeds the cost of living increase in the Bay Area. We recognize that this is an expensive place to live and our workers, like many Oaklanders, are struggling with these increasing costs.
“I for one, remember quite vividly the horrific layoffs that this city suffered from in 2010, which impacted both workers and residents when we cut a quarter of our workforce. We cannot afford to go back to that fiscal instability.”
Szykowny said the mayor misrepresented the facts.
“Again the mayor is actually incorrect,” he said. “The cost of living is rising at a rate that exceeds the city’s wage proposal. Furthermore, and more significantly, the city made no effort to engage and reach agreement with the union on issues related to working conditions and health and safety of the community.”
Some state elected officials, including state Assemblyman Rob Bonta, D-Alameda, and state Treasurer and gubernatorial candidate John Chiang, showed up Friday outside City Hall to support the striking workers as they picketed.
“I know firsthand the importance of a living wage and high-quality affordable health care and retirement security,” Bonta said through a megaphone to cheers from the crowd. “These times are hard, but I stand with you.”
Alameda County Supervisors Nate Miley and Richard Valle also showed up. Miley took the megaphone, calling on Schaaf and the City Council to “get it resolved not later, but now . ... We’re in solidarity with you.”
Workers said they did not anticipate being out of their jobs this long but are committed to standing up for better pay.
Frankie Izzo, a Head Start family advocate, stood in front of the Lionel J. Wilson Building holding a picket sign and cigarette in one hand and the leash for her Pomeranian-Chihuahua, Champ, in the other.
Izzo, 56, said she’s worked for Oakland’s Head Start program for more than 20 years.
She said she saved up some money in anticipation of the strike, but four days without pay is taking a financial toll.
“I’m gonna make it at least this month,” Izzo said. “It’s devastating to lose this much money out of our paychecks.”
Izzo said she moved out of Oakland two years ago after she could no longer afford rising rents.
“I love this city. It hurts me I can’t vote here anymore. It hurts me I can’t ride my bike to work anymore,” she said. “I couldn’t pay rent.”
Now she rents a cottage behind a friend’s home in San Leandro for $1,000 a month, she said. That friend is also an Oakland Head Start employee on strike, Izzo said, so she still has to find money to pay her rent so the friend, also without a paycheck, can afford to pay the mortgage.
But Izzo said she isn’t deterred from striking.
“I’ll do whatever I have to do,” she said. “We’ve all worked so hard for so long without being fairly compensated.”
Felipe Cuevas, Oakland chapter president of SEIU Local 1021, said the city’s last offer was “basically the same” as the previous two.
Cuevas said many union members lost homes during the recession and have yet to see the fruits of new economic growth themselves.
“We want them to sit down with us and really start dealing with us,” Cuevas said at Frank Ogawa Plaza. “It doesn’t matter if we’re bargaining or not, these problems are not going to go away.”
The International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers Local 21, which is also deep in negotiations and reviewing similar proposals, has been on a solidarity strike.
Members of other unions, including the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 1245, are also refusing to cross the picket line.