Oakland Education Association Plans To Strike Thursday After Failed OUSD Talks

Oakland Education Association Strike Thursday. The Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) issued an email containing the following letter, announcing that the Oakland Education Association (OEA) will go on strike Thursday, May 4th, 2023.

Wednesday, May 3, 2023

Dear Oakland Unified Community,

After seven long days and nights of bargaining, the Oakland Education Association (OEA) has decided to go ahead with their planned strike starting tomorrow, Thursday, May 4.

While we do not know how long the strike will last, we continue to bargain with OEA in an effort to reach an agreement. The end of the school year is always filled with milestone events for our students, so we want to ensure regular school resumes as soon as possible.

Schools will be open, but it will not be a typical school day as teachers are key to any instructional program. They will be on strike and not in classrooms.

Central office staff have been assigned to serve at schools to ensure students are safe. Please be aware of communication coming from your school and principal this evening and tomorrow, as they will be providing specific site instructions.

For families, we have put together this document to share important information in multiple languages in case of a strike. You may have been notified about “solidarity schools” opening up during the strike. These are not OUSD sanctioned schools.

Thank you for your patience and understanding as we work through this process.

In community,

OUSD News

Note, the “important information in multiple languages” is at the bottom of this post.

Oakland Education Association says it is fighting for the “Common Good”:

What Does Common Good Mean?

We are using common good as an umbrella terms to encompass a wide range of topics such as everything pertaining to Community Schools and more. For anyone who is curious what this looks like in a contract, UTLA recently won a large section of common good language in their recent contract. Our State Superintendent, Tony Thurmond, has supported districts to get language about community schools in their contracts as part of his work in expanding Community Schools in California. OUSD received the largest funding amount of any district in CA specifically for Community Schools.

Please visit the OEA page for more detail: Oakland Education Association Bargaining Position

Now, here’s the email sent by OUSD at 8:23 PM EST, and giving a more optimistic tone, prior to the midnight news:

Dear Oakland Unified Community,

After six full days and nights of contract negotiations with the Oakland Education Association (OEA), we believe that a deal with our Teachers’ Union is within reach.

As our negotiations continue today, we are discussing additional topics of great importance to OEA leaders, including topics that are not mandatory subjects of bargaining. They span a wide range of shared concerns and interests among our employees. We respect and appreciate their commitment to see our school district advance these critically important issues for the greater good for students, staff, and our Oakland community. The issues raised in OEA’s Common Good proposal are important and complex. Some – such as ending student homelessness – require outside partnership. Some – such as providing transportation for all students who qualify for free and reduced price lunches – require funding beyond what we are able to support. However, all of the issues require attention and we believe that we can support developing plans for addressing them. We are committed to examine and address these topics.

OEA’s passion for being a full service district for our community is truly the Oakland spirit. While we share a commitment to address these topics, our hope is that we will be able to reach agreement with OEA members on compensation and other issues being bargained, and not hold up their much-deserved pay increase.

The OUSD explained its offer earlier in the evening:

As we shared with you yesterday, the District offer would provide a substantial retroactive 10% raise for OEA members including: Child Development, TK-12, and Adult Education Teachers, Social Workers, Nurses, Counselors, Psychologists, Speech and Language Pathologists, and STIP Subs. Because of the New Salary Schedule proposed by OUSD, TK-12 teachers will experience a shift in their salary from this year to next that will range from 13% to 22%, along with a one-time $5,000 bonus. Below are detailed examples of the salary increases we’ve proposed for our teachers and counselors, nurses, and psychologists.

We know that our dedicated teachers would much prefer to be in class with students, rather than walking a strike line. We also know that this uncertainty can be unsettling for our students, families, and staff and want to share some family resources with you. For families, we will share a document later this afternoon that includes important information in case there is a strike. See: https://www.ousd.org/laborupdates

Oakland Education Association Strike Of 2023 Is On

But, as the first letter explained, the two sides were not able to reach an agreement. The OEA strike is on, now, as of 12 midnight, or an hour and ten minutes ago. Just how long it will go on for is anyone’s best guess.

Here’s a review of the opposing proposals from OEA and OUSD: OEA vs. OUSD.

_ENGLISH_Potential Strike One Pager 2023
SPANISH_One Pager ‘Resource Guide’ about Potential Strike
CHINESE_One Pager ‘Resource Guide’ about Potential Strike
ARABIC_Potential Strike Family Resource One Pager