Union pushes contract in effort to shutdown Oakland teachers’ strike

Union pushes contract in effort to shutdown Oakland teachers’ strike

By Joseph Santolan at the World Socialist Web Site

2 March 2019

On Friday, the seventh day of the Oakland teachers’ strike, the Oakland Education Association (OEA) bargaining committee announced that they had concluded a Tentative Agreement (TA) with the Oakland Unified School District (OUSD).

The TA, which has now been made available to the membership, does nothing to defend public education or to prevent school closures and the drive toward privatization through charter schools. The OUSD, OEA and the media all immediately hailed the deal as “historic.” GO Public Schools, the leading proponents of charter schools in Oakland, also praised the deal, the surest indication that it represents an attack on teachers and public education.

The World Socialist Web Site Teachers Newsletter urges teachers to vote “no” on the agreement and organize independently of the union to coordinate a struggle to defend public education.

The deal is predicated on teachers accepting the district’s slashing of the education budget. When OEA President Keith Brown was asked by a reporter, “Does this agreement hinge on the board making cuts?” he replied, “Yes, there is a vote in which the district must reprioritize.” The vote to which Brown referenced was on the Friday afternoon agenda of the OUSD board and was scheduled to carry out $30 million in cuts including to staffing and services.

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