Teachers threaten walkout in Oakland
Teachers from half a dozen schools in Oakland are planning to walk out Friday to warn the district of a looming strike if they aren’t offered better pay — a move that comes amid a massive teachers’ strike in Los Angeles.
The walkout is the latest action educators have planned since the Oakland Unified School District offered 5 percent raises over a few years last spring — an offer teachers balked at and countered with a 12 percent raise.
With negotiations at an impasse, the district and the Oakland Education Association teachers union entered the factfinding phase this month, the final step before a strike vote. The walkout,
however, is not sanctioned by the union.
“This is an additional attempt, after several, to try to get OUSD’s school board to come back to the table with a decent offer for teachers,” Oakland High School science teacher Suzi LeBaron said. “There’s a chance we could be taking a strike vote very soon and be striking during the first weeks of February.”
On Friday at 8 a.m., teachers from five Oakland high schools and one middle school are planning to meet in front of Oakland Technical High School and walk to the school district offices at 1000 Broadway in downtown Oakland for a demonstration.
Oakland schools Superintendent Kyla Johnson-Trammell agreed that teachers deserve to be paid more, but urged the educators to come to school to support their students on Friday.
“We are committed to working with the OEA to come to an equitable contract that works for both sides,” she said in a statement.
The school district hasn’t released a plan yet for teacher coverage during the walkout.
Several districts across the country have seen teachers go on strike in the past year, most recently in Los Angeles, where thousands of teachers, striking since Monday, are demanding pay raises, smaller class sizes and more support staff.
“You would think they would look at the national news and see that most of these situations have been resolved in favor of teachers,” LeBaron said. “You would think, ‘Why would we even put our city through the trauma, expense and public scrutiny?’ Why not come back to the table and come up with something we can all agree on?”
Oakland teachers have been working under an expired contract since July 2017. After the factfinding phase, the district will make a “final and best” offer, after which teachers will decide to accept or take a strike vote.
Because the walkout is not sanctioned by the Oakland Education Association, the school district could discipline teachers who participate by docking their pay.
In December, more than 100 teachers, mainly from Oakland High School, walked out to stage a protest at Oakland City Hall. That unsanctioned action did earn teachers a docked paycheck, LeBaron said.
“Our superintendent is misguided in that she thinks that’s a deterrent, when all it really did was really piss people off and make them more determined,” LeBaron said.