It's been a rough year for the Oakland Unified School District (OUSD), and it does not seem like that roughness will abate any time soon as negotiations with the Oakland Education Association (OEA) continue to deteriorate. After a wildcat strike in March, it now seems like the OEA could have a sanctioned strike involving its 3,000 employees as soon as May 1.
It would not be an exaggeration to say that in the past year OUSD and the OEA have been at each other's throats–only part of which has to do with the expired contract between them that's the subject of this post. The other part that has informed the negotiations around that contract: in February of 2022, OUSD suddenly voted to close down 11 of the district's schools (on a timetable of the end of that school year, no less) in an effort to cut costs and balance its budget. This decision prompted a cavalcade of outrage from teachers, some of the most vehement and sustained outrage I have ever seen, and continues to have lasting ramifications even a year later.
In the immediate term: OEA teachers marched downtown to stop the closures; there were two hunger strikes in response to the decision; and a one-day strike was called in April by the OEA, briefly paralyzing the district.
In the longer term this decision prompted total legal and political chaos. An unfair labor practice was filed against the district: OUSD had promised after a previous strike to provide at least 9 months of warning before a school closure, yet in this case only gave 7. There were lawsuits a plenty concerning the justice and legality of the closures–ultimately earlier this year they were ruled unlawful. And the closures became a contentious issue in the school board races last year. Thanks to the OEA, an anti-closure majority won those races and repealed the remaining closures in January of this year; nonetheless, several schools had already been irrevocably closed or merged by then. (The OEA as I understand is seeking compensation for that whole affair, although I'm unsure if any is forthcoming.)
And all of that is, again, just prelude to the actual contract at dispute here, which has been negotiated on since October of 2022 with this as background noise. You can see why things might be a little bit contentious between the sides here.
Indeed, by the time these two sides came to the negotiating table, they had already been pitted against each other completely: in where they think the district should go, in what to prioritize, and in who should be on the board at all. Subsequent moves after the pro-OEA majority was elected have only made the contract negotiations harder. With the school closures reversed, for example, OUSD's budget has become even tighter. Had all the proposed schools closed, the district expected it could free up millions in funds; but now, those were locked in as budget that couldn't really be cut without adversely impacting students. This set of chaotic circumstances define the current period of negotiations–which to put it mildly do not seem to be going anywhere.
In current negotiations, OEA's major sticking point is a 22.97% salary increase to put the district in line with median Alameda County teacher pay. OUSD does not want this and flatly says it cannot afford that: its best offer is an 8-11% increase given the fiscal constraints it says it needs to work with. In response to this counterproposal, hundreds of teachers staged a one-day wildcat strike on March 24 and paralyzed multiple schools from regular operation. The unauthorized show of force did not seemingly move OUSD, but is indicative of how generally fed up with the school board OEA teachers are. On other bargaining issues like class sizes, workloads, and safety, OUSD is likewise dragging its feet here or simply not negotiating in the first place. Several bargaining meetings have passed since these negotiations began–and even since the wildcat strike–with no substantial movement.
All of which brings us to the now: with patience running thin, interim president of the OEA Ismael Armendariz is pushing to just rip the band-aid off here. About a week ago, a strike authorization vote for OEA began–it's unclear when exactly the vote ends–and if approved, it seems extremely likely that a sanctioned strike will occur. By all indications, the vote will succeed–it's not every day that hundreds of workers do an unsanctioned wildcat strike well in advance of any formal strike vote, after all–and after that it all just seems academic. The two sides remain far apart on a number of issues and without an extensive last minute push uncharacteristic of OUSD to resolve those issues, time will run out to resolve those before May 1.
For what it's worth: if a strike does occur, I'd bet on the OEA prevailing. The Bay Area has a lot of labor strength and a fairly strong progressive and socialist movement, and the OUSD school board itself has at least one Democratic Socialists of America member, Valarie Bachelor (and possibly a second in Jennifer Brouhard, although when I last checked she was not a member). This is generally a bad area to pick a fight with labor unions.