On Monday January 23rd 2006, more than 100 people turned out on short notice to demand a fair contract and to protest Randolph Ward's intimidation tactics. That night AFSME President Morris Tatum announced that his members have pledged that they will support OEA picket lines in the event of a forced strike.

For the past 18 months, there has been a contract dispute between the Oakland Unified School District and the 3,000+ teachers, nurses, psychologists, speech therapists, librarians, counselors and substitutes represented by the Oakland Education Association (OEA). The OEA's main goal in these negotiations has been to stabilize the school district in order to stop the loss of students (down to 41,000) and the chronic turnover of teachers (over 300 last year).

A new offer was made by the OEA to the Oakland Unified School District on December 7th, but was rejected without comment by Randolph Ward (who was appointed by the state). Ward is now placing advertisements in Bay Area newspapers and on sites like Craig's List offering uncredentialed replacement workers $300 per day to be scabs in the case of a strike. This is nearly 3 times as much as substitute teachers normally get paid.

More | Oakland Teachers Will Lose | Oakland Teacher Replies to Tribune Editorial