Next Action: Line the Lake Part 2 on June 9th!

May 25, 2010                                     NEWS RELEASE

Contacts by cell: OEA President Betty Olson-Jones, 510-866-3676, or OEA/CTA staff member Memo Durgin at 510-502-6844.

After 4 Days of Negotiations, Oakland Teachers’ Contract Talks Are Halted Over Compensation, Other Key Issues

OAKLAND – New contract talks between the Oakland Education Association and Oakland Unified School District were halted Monday due to sharp differences over compensation and other issues and no new talks are scheduled.

Although limited progress was made during the four days of bargaining, it is felt that the parties’ proposals were still too far apart to reach a speedy resolution. The district’s insistence that educators discuss an additional significant item related to teacher transfer, not previously discussed during the fact-finding report hearing held earlier this year, also created another major hurdle to a settlement of the already outstanding issues that boiled over into a one-day strike last month.

“Both sides demonstrated a willingness and commitment to settle their differences,” noted Betty Olson-Jones, president of the 2,800-member OEA. “However, the negotiations remain very unsettled in critical areas such as the Special Education class sizes, and the continuance of the Adult Education program, and caseload limits for nurse and counselors.  Also, there still remains a vast chasm between the parties over teacher compensation. The district must make investing in students and teachers its top priority.”

Oakland teachers are the lowest paid in Alameda County. Due to the one-day strike, the district asked that negotiations resume on May 12 for the first time since December.

Although the OEA bargaining team felt a settlement could not be reached by the self-imposed bargaining deadline of June 1, the parties have an obligation to students and the community to continue to negotiate until a settlement is reached, the teachers agree. The OEA bargaining team members are all classroom teachers who were concerned that they be allowed to spend the last few days of the school year with their students so not to disrupt their chances for a successful conclusion to this school year. OEA is willing to return to the table if significant changes can be made in the district’s proposal. The OEA remains open to additional negotiations sessions if progress can be made.

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The 2,800-member Oakland Education Association is an affiliate of the 325,000-member California Teachers Association and the 3.2 million-member National Education Association

The OEA Bargaining Team, with staff and OEA president Betty Olson-Jones, met with the OUSD team for four hours this afternoon. (Our team caucused for some time both before and after the negotiating sesion.)

Superintendent Tony Smith was present with his team for the first hour and a half.  He has changed the OUSD Bargaining Team– it now consists of Troy Christmas (Labor Relations), Vernon Hal (CFO), Jacqueline Minor (General Counsel), and Marion McWilliams (Deputy General Counsel).

We got to hear the District’s views on the items in the Fact-Finding report, some quite clear and others rather vague.  There are some smaller items we can problably agree on quickly (2 "no-tell" personal leave days, no Saturday/Sunday work, maintaining staffed elementary prep) but we are farther apart on all of the larger, more costly items.   We began a discussion of elementary class size which will be continued at the next session.

We have tentatively scheduled 5 additional days for negotiations during the next two weeks, if there is sufficient progress for these to be worthwhile. The next bargaining session is scheduled for Tuesday, May 18th.

David de Leeuw for the OEA Bargaining Team

At yesterday’s Membership Meeting, the following motions were voted on after discussion and debate:

1.  Authorize the OEA Executive Board to call all actions as necessary to settle the contract dispute with OUSD up to and including a strike. Amendment (passed by voice vote at the Membership Meeting): A decision to call an indefinite strike must be decided by the Representative Council.

     Yes:  565          No:   184         Abstain:    6                          

Passed by 75%

2.  Vote to approve the Health Benefits Improvement Committee (HBIC) April 14,   2010 Tentative Agreement (TA).

      Yes:  559         No:   15           Abstain:   16                        

Passed by 95%

Stay strong, OEA members! We deserve a fair contract!!

As one of our members said so eloquently yesterday, 

"I am striking for the same reason I took this job in the first place: I want the kids in Oakland to go to college.  They can’t do it if they don’t have a preschool in their neighborhood. They can’t do it if there’s 30 kids in their 3rd grade class and 42 kids in their Algebra class.  They can’t do it if their parents have no way of learning English.  They can’t do it if every single one of their teachers is a first-year teacher. They can’t do it if they’ve never met a school librarian.  They can’t do it if there isn’t a nurse to make sure they’re healthy."

What an amazing day! April 29th showed the real power of teachers, nurses, counselors, speech therapists, social workers, librarians, substitute teachers, Early Childhood and Adult Education teachers — all together in a brilliant display of unity, creativity, passion and energy!

More links will be posted as soon as possible. Here’s a link to CTA’s Stand Up For Schools website, which has a number of videos on our strike.