A little after 8 PM PT on Sunday, outlets have begun reporting that Oakland teachers have voted to accept the deal they fought so hard for by a 58 percent margin, with around 64 percent of the union voting for the initial 3 percent bump in pay on a separate ballot.
On Friday, the Oakland Education Association (OEA) and the Oakland United School District (OUSD) announced that they had reached a tentative deal that would end the week-long teachers strike. After the initial joy and positive news of a possible victory in the fight for our children, questions arose about whether or not teachers would agree to the terms of this contract. While the demand for an increase in teachers’ wages was met to some degree, many felt that the other highlighted “wins” in the deal were not sufficient. One of the more noticeable omissions in the contract was any promises or deals to increase the wildly overburdened school nursing staff of the OUSD, whose 22 nurses serve 37,000 children. On Sunday, teachers came to the Paramount Theater in downtown Oakland to vote on the contract. The ballots were taken a little after 5 PM to the OEA headquarters for counting.
On Saturday it was being reported that teachers were split right around 50-50 as to what they would do about this contract. There are big issues that still need to be resolved. The reduction in class size is very small. There are also no guarantees that schools won’t be closed, which raises the question of how the OUSD can close schools and reduce staff while maintaining class-size reductions.
The East Bay Express spoke with many teachers who felt that the offer was not nearly as robust as was being reported, and while they voted to reject it, were not sure what the outcome was going to be. Teacher Lara Trale told the paper that she felt the union representatives’ explanation of how and why this offer was the best thing for teachers and the union at this time was lacking, saying, “I think we could do better, and if we truly can’t we need clearer explanations than the ones we got today.”
In the end the teachers voted to end the strike and take the victory for now, reminding the school board and the state that Oakland, like Los Angeles before it, is willing to fight.