The Wildcat Underground: Oakland Teachers Pull Wildcat

We are teachers who have waited long enough

We are teachers, counselors, and other school workers at Oakland High School in Oakland, California. We have worked without a contract for more than a year.

We are prepared to strike if and when our union makes that choice.

Until then, we will carry out our own wildcat actions to spur the Oakland Unified School District to negotiate in good faith with our union.

Our first action is an Educators' Day Out work stoppage on Monday, Dec. 10, 2018.

Although we are all, individually, members of the Oakland Education Association, our Wildcat Underground actions are not sanctioned by the OEA. ......
The Wildcat Underground

This is beyond red state rebellion. I have had contacts in Oakland and will touch base. Meanwhile--

Mike Antonucci reports:

Unlike LA, however, rifts have developed between the leaders of the Oakland Education Association and factions of the rank-and-file. Today teachers at Oakland High School organized a sickout that was not sanctioned by the union. One source reports at least four other schools are involved.

“People were sick of the very slow moving and uninspiring actions being proposed by the union itself,” teacher Miles Murray told the Bay City News Service.

Group of Oakland Teachers Organize Wildcat Sickout

Posted: 10 Dec 2018 09:43 AM PST

While our attention has been focused on the impending teacher strike in Los Angeles, public school employees in Oakland are also in the fact-finding stage of collective bargaining and could hit the picket lines in January as well.

Unlike LA, however, rifts have developed between the leaders of the Oakland Education Association and factions of the rank-and-file.

Today teachers at Oakland High School organized a sickout that was not sanctioned by the union. One source reports at least four other schools are involved.

“People were sick of the very slow moving and uninspiring actions being proposed by the union itself,” teacher Miles Murray told the Bay City News Service.

“Now is the time for this movement to happen, and the union is moving too slow,” teacher Alex Webster-Guiney told KQED. “They need to be supporting the grassroots movement of their members.”
OEA has issued no statement about the sickout.

Although the union’s contract demands are similar to those in Los Angeles, the district has always been a cautionary tale of financial mismanagement. The state took over Oakland Unified in 2003 and didn’t return local control until 2009.