OAKLAND — Oakland teachers will vote next week on whether to allow their union leaders to call a strike amid a labor dispute between the district and their union.
The vote comes amid an ongoing teacher strike in Los Angeles — the first in 30 years — that started Jan. 14. Oakland’s last sanctioned teacher strike was in 2010, and lasted one day. A 26-day teacher strike occurred in 1996.
The local teacher’s union, the Oakland Education Association, has been without a contract since July 2017, and is demanding that its new contract include a 12 percent raise over three years and smaller class sizes, and that the district hire more counselors and nurses. The district has offered a 5 percent raise over three years.
The union’s 3,000 members of the Oakland Education Association will vote Jan. 29 to Feb. 1 on whether to authorize union leaders to call a strike if contract talks break down. The vote follows hearings before a state-appointed neutral board Jan. 31 and Feb. 1. The board will issue a “fact-finding” report based on proposals from both sides.
“If the district does not present a proposal that truly commits to ending the teacher retention crisis, that does not commit to lowering class sizes, investing in student support and investing in a living wage to keep teachers in Oakland, then it’s time for Oakland teachers to draw the line, and that line will be a picket line,” said union president Keith Brown in a statement released Sunday.
The strike vote follows two non-union-sanctioned “sick-outs” by Oakland teachers in December and January. On both occasions, teachers called in sick to work and instead rallied in support of a strike.
Sasaki, on several occasions, has said the district’s budget deficit — expected to reach $56 million by the 2020-21 school year — makes the union’s demands for higher wages harder to meet.
The average Oakland teacher’s yearly salary was $63,149 during the 2017-18 school year, according to a report from the state’s Department of Education. Starting salary was $46,570, with highest paid teachers at $83,724.
