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Oakland teachers: Strike Vote as Soon as 2/12, Come Help This Saturday!!
To support Oakland's educators... this Saturday and every Saturday is
"supermarket Saturday" where union members and allies will go out to most
major supermarkets in Oakland all day and pass out information about our
contract.
"supermarket Saturday" where union members and allies will go out to most
major supermarkets in Oakland all day and pass out information about our
contract.
30% of Oakland's teachers are leaving every year. This is one of the most
significant factors leading to a destabalized learning environment that is
driving 73 of 100 African American students out of the Oakland schools
before graduation.
To support Oakland's educators... this Saturday and every Saturday is
"supermarket Saturday" where union members and allies will go out to most
major supermarkets in Oakland all day and pass out information about our
contract. We don't have hundreds of thousands of dollars to invest in our
PR campaign, but we do have the truth and our voices!! Go to a supermarket
near you or call the OEA at 510.763-4020 to learn more or find other ways
to help or stop by our office, 272 E. 12th Street, or
go to http://www.oaklandea.org
http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/news/local/states/california/alameda_county/montclair/13838450.htm
Posted on Fri, Feb. 10, 2006
OEA warns it could hold strike vote
No talks are scheduled between the teachers union and the district, which
left the table Jan. 31
By Kimberly S. Wetzel
STAFF WRITER
The Oakland Education Association could hold a strike vote later this month
if the school district fails to offer what the union considers a fair
teachers contract, union officials said.
Ben Visnick, president of the union representing the Oakland Unified School
District's teachers, said the OEA is still waiting to hear from the
district, which left the bargaining table on Jan. 31 after union members
asked for a 7 percent increase in salary over three years. The district's
final offer was 4 percent.
If the district doesn't submit a counter proposal and attempt to continue
negotiations, a strike vote at the union's tentatively scheduled Feb. 21
members meeting is very possible, Visnick said.
"We're turning the pressure up big time," Visnick said Wednesday. "We gave
them a proposal, and they need to give us a counter-proposal. We don't want
to strike; we're trying to settle, but it takes two."
Oakland's teachers have been working for more than a year and a half
without a contract.
Although both sides have indicated they are willing to resume negotiations,
neither has extended the olive branch and no new talks are scheduled. A
call to the district was not immediately returned Thursday. However,
district officials have said in recent days that no decision has been made
on its next move and that it's up to the union to initiate new talks.
The main issues for the union are pay increases and no limits on district
health care contributions. The district has maintained it cannot afford a
pay raise other than the 4 percent offered.
Teachers also are asking for the hiring of more specialized teachers and a
stop to involuntary transfers.
Union representatives and about 100 teachers and supporters continued a
push for public support at a rally Wednesday in front of the district's
offices. They warned parents to think twice about sending children to
school if teachers decide to picket.
"It would be an unsafe position for parents to send their kids to school in
the event of strike," said Trish Gorham, OEA first vice president.
The rally came a day after the Oakland City Council passed a resolution
asking both sides to sit down at the table once more using an independent
fact-finders report as a foundation.
The report, issued in mid-January on the district's finances, recommended
that district officials give teachers a 4 percent to 4.5 percent pay
increase over the next two years. Teachers took a 4 percent pay cut a few
years ago.
Meanwhile, teachers are becoming more and more angry.
"District leaders, including (State Administrator) Dr. (Randolph) Ward and
some of the bargaining team. members need a lesson in differentiation
between the word 'restore' and 'raise', as well as a lesson in math," said
Susan Townsend, a teacher at Carl Munck Elementary.
"We are dealing with a negative 4 percent, we were given a 4 percent cut a
few years ago," she said. "Until that cut is restored, you cannot use the
word 'raise' accurately." Reach Kimberly S. Wetzel at kwetzel [at] cctimes.com
or at 510-748-1682.
significant factors leading to a destabalized learning environment that is
driving 73 of 100 African American students out of the Oakland schools
before graduation.
To support Oakland's educators... this Saturday and every Saturday is
"supermarket Saturday" where union members and allies will go out to most
major supermarkets in Oakland all day and pass out information about our
contract. We don't have hundreds of thousands of dollars to invest in our
PR campaign, but we do have the truth and our voices!! Go to a supermarket
near you or call the OEA at 510.763-4020 to learn more or find other ways
to help or stop by our office, 272 E. 12th Street, or
go to http://www.oaklandea.org
http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/news/local/states/california/alameda_county/montclair/13838450.htm
Posted on Fri, Feb. 10, 2006
OEA warns it could hold strike vote
No talks are scheduled between the teachers union and the district, which
left the table Jan. 31
By Kimberly S. Wetzel
STAFF WRITER
The Oakland Education Association could hold a strike vote later this month
if the school district fails to offer what the union considers a fair
teachers contract, union officials said.
Ben Visnick, president of the union representing the Oakland Unified School
District's teachers, said the OEA is still waiting to hear from the
district, which left the bargaining table on Jan. 31 after union members
asked for a 7 percent increase in salary over three years. The district's
final offer was 4 percent.
If the district doesn't submit a counter proposal and attempt to continue
negotiations, a strike vote at the union's tentatively scheduled Feb. 21
members meeting is very possible, Visnick said.
"We're turning the pressure up big time," Visnick said Wednesday. "We gave
them a proposal, and they need to give us a counter-proposal. We don't want
to strike; we're trying to settle, but it takes two."
Oakland's teachers have been working for more than a year and a half
without a contract.
Although both sides have indicated they are willing to resume negotiations,
neither has extended the olive branch and no new talks are scheduled. A
call to the district was not immediately returned Thursday. However,
district officials have said in recent days that no decision has been made
on its next move and that it's up to the union to initiate new talks.
The main issues for the union are pay increases and no limits on district
health care contributions. The district has maintained it cannot afford a
pay raise other than the 4 percent offered.
Teachers also are asking for the hiring of more specialized teachers and a
stop to involuntary transfers.
Union representatives and about 100 teachers and supporters continued a
push for public support at a rally Wednesday in front of the district's
offices. They warned parents to think twice about sending children to
school if teachers decide to picket.
"It would be an unsafe position for parents to send their kids to school in
the event of strike," said Trish Gorham, OEA first vice president.
The rally came a day after the Oakland City Council passed a resolution
asking both sides to sit down at the table once more using an independent
fact-finders report as a foundation.
The report, issued in mid-January on the district's finances, recommended
that district officials give teachers a 4 percent to 4.5 percent pay
increase over the next two years. Teachers took a 4 percent pay cut a few
years ago.
Meanwhile, teachers are becoming more and more angry.
"District leaders, including (State Administrator) Dr. (Randolph) Ward and
some of the bargaining team. members need a lesson in differentiation
between the word 'restore' and 'raise', as well as a lesson in math," said
Susan Townsend, a teacher at Carl Munck Elementary.
"We are dealing with a negative 4 percent, we were given a 4 percent cut a
few years ago," she said. "Until that cut is restored, you cannot use the
word 'raise' accurately." Reach Kimberly S. Wetzel at kwetzel [at] cctimes.com
or at 510-748-1682.
For more information:
http://www.oaklandea.org
Add Your Comments
Comments
(Hide Comments)
1. An Oakland teacher's strike can be won. The Oakland Unified School District can be rapidly compelled to settle, and to settle to the overwhelming advantage of striking teachers -- if this strike immediately leads to a city-wide school kids walkout.
2. The word for this should be spread by people who aren't strikers, and aren't employees of the school district.
This will prevent any individual strikers from being singled out and victimized later.
3. An action waged in this manner might result in some working people getting a better deal that we get when we play by the pro-capitalist rules of trade unionism. It may also tend, in a very slight way, to politicize the strike and give it something of a more general character.
4. Now, I don't have any kids, and I don't hang out with the under-18 set. So I have no idea of what the level of class consciousness is among kids these days. An appeal for a mass student walkout should certainly be phrased in terms of class solidarity. Most kids in public school are future or current wage slaves. And besides, in any case it's just the right thing to do.
But the real effective appeal of this might be a more amorphous anti-authoritarian one -- kids hate school; my guess is most do. I did, back when I was a kid.
This also suggest another problem in communicating a message that resonates, which is that a lot of schoolkids may percieve of teachers as coercive authority figures.
So the appeal of this should be couched as a jumbo-sized holiday for school kids.
The resulting city-wide chaos, or, let's say, "adultist" fears of vast numbers of unruly young people flooding into Oakalnd's downtown and fucking up the city's bond rating, and the appeal of Oaktown condo living to yuppie gentrifiers might bring the OUSD back to the bargaining table on bended knee at speeds approaching that of light.
My impression is that young people have a tremendous and consistently proven ability to engage in self-organization; witness the tremendous proliferation of cliques among high schoolers. Under the right circumstances this capacity for self-organization can take off in a very different and positive direction. It might be a bigger learning experience for future (and current ) wage earners than anything they will get in the classroom during normal business hours.
Harassment of strikebreakers may be one small part of a winning strategy. But this also has the potential to sidetrack the strike away from bigger and better tactics that could cause the conflict to spread. A strike can only be won if it tends to move beyond the limits of a sectoral struggle. Harassment of scabs may be emotionally satisfying for the people who do it, but that's not a measure of how useful it is in winning this strike -- or other strikes, either.
Only new tactics that jettison virtually the entire framework of the classical, social democratic workers' movement are going to be effective in the short term -- and more importantly in the long term.
2. The word for this should be spread by people who aren't strikers, and aren't employees of the school district.
This will prevent any individual strikers from being singled out and victimized later.
3. An action waged in this manner might result in some working people getting a better deal that we get when we play by the pro-capitalist rules of trade unionism. It may also tend, in a very slight way, to politicize the strike and give it something of a more general character.
4. Now, I don't have any kids, and I don't hang out with the under-18 set. So I have no idea of what the level of class consciousness is among kids these days. An appeal for a mass student walkout should certainly be phrased in terms of class solidarity. Most kids in public school are future or current wage slaves. And besides, in any case it's just the right thing to do.
But the real effective appeal of this might be a more amorphous anti-authoritarian one -- kids hate school; my guess is most do. I did, back when I was a kid.
This also suggest another problem in communicating a message that resonates, which is that a lot of schoolkids may percieve of teachers as coercive authority figures.
So the appeal of this should be couched as a jumbo-sized holiday for school kids.
The resulting city-wide chaos, or, let's say, "adultist" fears of vast numbers of unruly young people flooding into Oakalnd's downtown and fucking up the city's bond rating, and the appeal of Oaktown condo living to yuppie gentrifiers might bring the OUSD back to the bargaining table on bended knee at speeds approaching that of light.
My impression is that young people have a tremendous and consistently proven ability to engage in self-organization; witness the tremendous proliferation of cliques among high schoolers. Under the right circumstances this capacity for self-organization can take off in a very different and positive direction. It might be a bigger learning experience for future (and current ) wage earners than anything they will get in the classroom during normal business hours.
Harassment of strikebreakers may be one small part of a winning strategy. But this also has the potential to sidetrack the strike away from bigger and better tactics that could cause the conflict to spread. A strike can only be won if it tends to move beyond the limits of a sectoral struggle. Harassment of scabs may be emotionally satisfying for the people who do it, but that's not a measure of how useful it is in winning this strike -- or other strikes, either.
Only new tactics that jettison virtually the entire framework of the classical, social democratic workers' movement are going to be effective in the short term -- and more importantly in the long term.
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