Oakland Teacher's Strike Ends. Not All are Happy.

Note: This is a quick report on the Oakland teachers strike and contract that was accepted yesterday by the membership. There's a sickout by teachers and students today for a protest at the school board meeting, starting at 10 am . We will hopefully have more on this later today. Richard Mellor

Oakland California

The week long teachers strike by the Oakland Education Association has ended after the tentative agreement was accepted by the members yesterday by a vote of 58% to 43% according to reports in the media this morning. The teachers and other education employees should be congratulated on their resilience and preparations for the strike that organized considerable community support. I have little information at the moment but there was significant opposition to the settlement as the numbers indicate.

There were protests, including at the school board meetings, after the tentative agreement was announced and some teachers claimed that the OEA leadership made a deal and asked pickets to disperse and let the school board into the building where they could approve the draconian budget. “Some union and community members were not ready to stop picketing outside a planned board meeting where $20.2 million in cuts that would help fund the agreement were to be voted on. As they read details of the deal on their cell phones, some yelled, “Vote no!” and “hold the line!” (edsource.com)

One OEA official who broke ranks with the leadership called on the rank and file to “stay strong” and oppose the board’s $20 million in cuts that were supposed to help fund the agreement, as one teacher puts it, “(layoffs, school closings, program cuts).”  He attacked the “meager” class size reduction but like other critics also the board’s five month pause in the school closure program.

This is touted as a victory but is equivalent to the “cooling off periods” the politicians and their judges often impose on workers during strikes. Jerry Brown used cooling off periods numerous times to undermine transit strikes here in the Bay Area. The TWU and SEIU representing drivers and station personnel on the transit system have the ability to shut down the entire Bay Area economy.

But the momentum that is present especially during the onset of a strike does not last indefinitely and it is extremely hard to get it back once it is derailed by a politician or a judge under the guise of reaching a “fair” resolution. Union officials like it because it helps get them off the hook, removes the pressure from below. They will continue to close schools you can bet your life on it and we should remember that we are close to an economic recession or even another slump and that will increase the calls for belt tightening (for workers of course)

From what I read in the media this morning the major gains announced are:

11 percent salary increase over three years, 3 percent bonus at ratification.

 Phased-in class size reductions at all schools

A 5-month pause in any school closures

Lower caseloads for special education teachers and counselors;

The school board will vote on whether to push the state for a charter school moratorium.

As a person that has been involved in a strike and three sets of negotiations, the last one where three of us called for a no vote after taking a contract back to the membership, the most disappointing is the local DSA chapter’s (East Bay DSA) uncritical support for what is a very limited success story given the possibilities. The DSA basically tails the California State Teachers Association and OEA leadership in supporting the deal rather than helping explain to the many new teachers that have entered the profession since the last strike in 1996 helping them understand what can be won if the defensive strategy of the entire labor leadership is challenged.

The OEA is affiliated to the California Teachers Association with about 300,000 members. The city in which this strike takes place is heavily unionized in the public sector especially. The Central Labor body, AFL-CIO to which some 125,000 workers are affiliated once ran the great Oakland General Strike in 1946. California has 2 million workers affiliated to the state AFL-CIO Federation of Labor.What is this?

Individual local unions cannot make major gains, certainly permanent ones, in this climate facing opposition from big business and the two parties of Wall Street, Democrats and Republicans. What is the point of belonging to huge national organizations if the potential power of their membership is not mobilized?

The lesson of West Virginia and other states is that we can win if the tactics that the strategists atop organized labor are abandoned and if those that continue to promote them are passed by through rank and file power and leadership.

What we have stressed on this blog time and time again is that the victories in the red states and their ability to successfully break the state laws and challenge orthodox policies was possible because the trade union hierarchy was weaker or not present at all in these struggles. In states, often Democratic, where they are stronger they would have crushed those movements. Democratic politicians play an insidious role in these struggles as so-called “friends of labor” they always have and always will and in this case certainly the DSA leadership has joined them. For DSA members who are disappointed with this uncritical support for the labor tops on the part of their own leadership I would welcome the opportunity to sit and talk with these brothers and sisters, share my experiences and contribute to transforming the labor movement. Activists in the labor movement, particularly socialists, cannot limit their role to simply being cheerleaders for the labor hierarchy. Here is the rather feeble response to the end of the strike form the East Bay DSA Chapter.

Mar 3, 2019 8:59 PM

Oakland strike

Oakland Education Association members have voted to accept the tentative agreement reached by union negotiators and the district!

After a robust democratic process, 64% of OEA members voted to approve the 2017-2018 contract term, and 58% voted to approve the 2018-2021 term.

The level of deliberation and democracy in OEA's decision is unprecedented in the teachers strike wave of 2018 and 2019 and sets OEA on a path towards a stronger, more militant union that will keep up the fight in years to come.

The contract includes a pay increase of 11% (the district's initial offer was a pay cut of 1% with an increased workload), a reduction in class sizes and counselor to student ratios, and a five month moratorium on school closures, among other provisions.

Even though this contract will not permanently halt school closures or charter schools in Oakland, and some of the other provisions represent small steps forward at best, the agreement affirmed by Oakland teachers today is an important step forward, and was only possible thanks to the organization and militancy of rank-and-file teachers, which will be invaluable for winning even greater gains in the next fight.

East Bay DSA is tremendously proud to have been able to support teachers on the picket lines, at mass rallies, and providing food for students, OEA members, and community supporters through Bread for Ed.

Whatever contribution you have been able to make has been a contribution to the fight against the billionaire privatizers and for Oakland's diverse working class.

This democratic decision by the rank and file is no declaration that the fight is over. The strike has ended, but the struggle for the schools that all students deserve continues.

East Bay DSA will stand arm in arm with teachers from Oakland, around the Bay, and across the country to build the power we need to stop school closures, fully fund public education by taxing the rich and corporations, end the privatization of our schools, and build a better tomorrow in the classrooms, the ballot box, and the streets.

We hope you'll join us in this fight.

Donate to the struggle

In solidarity,
East Bay DSA