Teachers’ Union Leadership Urges Rejection of Tentative Contract

Teachers’ Union Leadership Urges Rejection of Tentative Contract

By Ken Epstein
April 6, 2005

The leadership of the Oakland teachers’ union has voted to oppose the tentative agreement reached two weeks ago between the school district and the union bargaining team.

The Executive Board of the Oakland Education (OEA) voted 13-0 at its March 31 meeting to recommend that the membership reject the tentative contract, which was accepted by the union bargaining team on March 25.

The OEA Representative Council, which meets monthly and is composed of representatives from school sites, voted 96-8 at its April 4 meeting to support the decision of the Executive Board.

The final decision, whether to accept or reject the contract, will be made at a meeting open to all union members, tentatively set for April 27.

The leadership opposed the contract because it failed to meet the needs of teachers and students of the Oakland community, said OEA President Ben Visnick. In addition, leaders were upset that the signed agreement was only “conceptual,” that is, lacking in the actual language that would be in the contract binding both parties, he said.

The March 25 tentative agreement said that specific contract language would be available by April 29. So far, the wording has not been completed.

“Unfortunately, we cannot recommend this conceptual agreement to our membership while its details are missing,” Visnick said, “and because the drastic capping of health benefits, the elimination of art and music enrichment teachers, the increase in student/counselor ratios and the threat of involuntary transfers will lead to more teacher turnover in Oakland Unified.”

The district is attempting in the contract to contain the ever increasing costs of health coverage, wanting employees to pick up the cost of coverage that rises above a set “cap.” Until now, employees have faced increased “co-pays” for service and medicine, but the cost of monthly premiums have been covered 100 percent by the district.

The union is asking teachers to begin a “work to rule,” campaign, which means that they will perform work that is required by the contract but none of the extras that teachers generally do on their own time.

Under work to rule, teachers:

• Arrive at school as a group and leave school as a group
• Grade homework only during their conference (preparation) periods
• Refuse extra duty beyond the school day
• Take duty-free lunch

Teachers at a number of school sites are already engaged in work to rule, and others are planning meetings to discuss how they wish to implement it. Work to rule as a tactic is often adopted by teacher unions as a step in an escalating campaign to win a better contract.