Activism

Teachers and Port of Oakland Workers Strike Friday Against School Closures and Billionaire Fisher’s Port Deal

The Oakland administration and school board have rushed to close schools ignoring its own policy and contract commitments to implement its commitments to confer with parents, teachers and the public about its proposals. Rather than “engage” with school communities, the school closures are being planned in concert with state leaders and their representatives, Alameda County Schools’ Supt. L.K. Monroe and the Fiscal Crisis Management and Assistance Team (FCMAT).

Published

3 years ago

May 4, 2022

Oakland Post

Teachers and community rally against budget cuts and school closures. Photo courtesy of CTA.

OUSD Supt. Johnson-Trammell says teacher strike is “illegal” but urges students to stay home on Friday

By Ken Epstein

Oakland educators and Port of Oakland longshore workers are holding simultaneous one-day strikes on Friday as a city-wide movement continues to grow in response to billionaires and gentrifiers backed by elected Democrats seeking to close as many as half of the city’s public schools and give away public funds and public land to build a $12-billion real estate deal and baseball stadium at the Port.

The strikes, as well as rallies and a march, were proposed by a new coalition, Schools and Labor Against Privatization (S.L.A.P.) composed of rank and file educators, members and leaders of ILWU Local and community members to oppose the privatization of public assets and the accelerated displacement of Oakland’s Black, Latino and working class residents.

Keith Brown, president of the Oakland Education Association (OEA), announced the educators’ work stoppage at a press conference on Tuesday. He said an overwhelming 75% of OEA voting members voted to authorize the one-day strike “because the Oakland Unified School District has unilaterally set aside its 2019 agreement with OEA to engage with families when considering school closures. OUSD has continued to ignore this important agreement despite the outcry from families to stop school closures.”

Trent Willis, past president International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) Local 10 said the union moved its annual May Day stop-work meeting from Sunday to Friday so both unions could join together to protest privatization of public resources.

Willis said that longshore workers and school communities are facing the same opponents.

“We have in common the same billionaire, John Fisher, also a funder of KIPP and Rocketship charter schools, who is trying to privatize our schools and our ports,” he said. “Howard Terminal is key to our Port infrastructure and crucial as an economic engine of the Bay Area. It is a nexus between the port cargo area, ILWU training area, and ship turn around. It is critical to keeping trucks off of the streets of West Oakland and is next to a fully functioning industrial railroad.

“Already the (public) price tag for building the luxury condos and A’s stadium is $1.3 million, (and) they want to close down Oakland’s public schools? Not on our watch,” he said.

Willis added, “The ILWU is really excited about this coalition, Schools and Labor Against Privatization — in fact SLAP is urging similar committees against privatization around the country.”

OEA President Brown said that the strike is taking place because educators are taking “the next step to stop school closures that will displace thousands of students and disproportionately impact Black students in Oakland. Educators say that they (have) had enough. We have authorized a one-day ULB (Unfair Labor Practices) strike to let the district know that the refusal to honor agreements and to have meaningful conversations about how these school closures will impact communities of color is unacceptable.”

“This plan to close schools in predominantly Black and Brown neighborhoods will accelerate charter growth and gentrification, leading to more educational segregation and a financial drain. That already costs Oakland Public Schools $57 million annually,” he said.

“We call on our elected officials to provide students and schools with the support that they need — instead of closing our schools — and stop the disruption and dislocation of our students. Closing schools does not save money. Our students need more, not less.”

He said that on April 29, teachers are picketing at all OUSD school sites at 6:30 a.m. Other actions that are taking place during the day include a rally at Oscar Grant Plaza at Oakland City Hall and a march to the OUSD headquarters at 1000 Broadway.

OUSD has already closed about 20 schools since 2003. This year and next year, the district is planning to close about 12 more schools. Officials have said repeatedly that OUSD should ultimately shut down about half of its 80 public schools.

Joining in the strike are school workers in AFCME and SEIU 102. A representative of the Alameda Labor Council spoke at the OEA press conference, backing the unions.

OUSD Supt. Kyla Johnson Trammell denounced the strike as an “illegal” work stoppage and urged parents and guardians not to send their children to school on Friday.

“While school buildings will be open on Friday and all employees are still required to come to work, we do not believe that we’ll be able to cover the high number of expected staff absences with substitutes or reassigned central office staff,” she said. “Therefore, we are asking all families not to send their children to school on Friday. The absence will be excused, and no student will be adversely impacted by not attending school that day.”

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Activism

Gov. Newsom Approves $170 Million to Fast Track Wildfire Resilience

AB 100 approves major investments in regional conservancies across the state, including over $30 million each for the Sierra Nevada, Santa Monica Mountains, State Coastal, and San Gabriel/Lower LA Rivers and Mountains conservancies. An additional $10 million will support wildfire response and resilience efforts.

Published

2 days ago

April 28, 2025

Oakland Post

Courtesy of California Governor Gavin Newsom’s Facebook page.

By Bo Tefu
California Black Media

With wildfire season approaching, last week Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill (AB) 100, unlocking $170 million to fast-track wildfire prevention and forest management projects — many of which directly protect communities of color, who are often hardest hit by climate-driven disasters.

“With this latest round of funding, we’re continuing to increase the speed and size of forest and vegetation management essential to protecting communities,” said Newsom when he announced the funding on April 14.

“We are leaving no stone unturned — including cutting red tape — in our mission to ensure our neighborhoods are protected from destructive wildfires,” he said.

Newsom also signed an executive order suspending certain regulations to allow urgent work to move forward faster.

This funding builds on California’s broader Wildfire and Forest Resilience Action Plan, a $2.7 billion effort to reduce fuel loads, increase prescribed burning, and harden communities. The state has also launched new dashboards to keep the public informed and hold agencies accountable.

California has also committed to continue investing $200 million annually through 2028 to expand this effort, ensuring long-term resilience, particularly in vulnerable communities.

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Activism

California Rideshare Drivers and Supporters Step Up Push to Unionize

Today in California, over 600,000 rideshare drivers want the ability to form or join unions for the sole purpose of collective bargaining or other mutual aid and protection. It’s a right, and recently at the State Capitol, a large number of people, including some rideshare drivers and others working in the gig economy, reaffirmed that they want to exercise it.

Published

2 days ago

April 28, 2025

Oakland Post

Shutterstock

By Antonio‌ ‌Ray‌ ‌Harvey‌
California‌ ‌Black‌ ‌Media‌

On July 5, 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed into federal law the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). Also known as the “Wagner Act,” the law paved the way for employees to have “the right to self-organization, to form, join, or assist labor organizations,” and “to bargain collectively through representatives of their own choosing, according to the legislation’s language.

On April 8, the rideshare drivers held a rally with lawmakers to garner support for Assembly Bill (AB) 1340, the “Transportation Network Company Drivers (TNC) Labor Relations Act.”

Authored by Assemblymembers Buffy Wicks (D-Oakland) and Marc Berman (D-Menlo Park), AB 1340 would allow drivers to create a union and negotiate contracts with industry leaders like Uber and Lyft.

“All work has dignity, and every worker deserves a voice — especially in these uncertain times,” Wicks said at the rally. “AB 1340 empowers drivers with the choice to join a union and negotiate for better wages, benefits, and protections. When workers stand together, they are one of the most powerful forces for justice in California.”

Wicks and Berman were joined by three members of the California Legislative Black Caucus (CLBC): Assemblymembers Tina McKinnor (D-Inglewood), Sade Elhawary (D-Los Angeles), and Isaac Bryan (D-Ladera Heights).

Yvonne Wheeler, president of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor; April Verrett, President of Service Employees International Union (SEIU); Tia Orr, Executive Director of SEIU; and a host of others participated in the demonstration on the grounds of the state capitol.

“This is not a gig. This is your life. This is your job,” Bryan said at the rally. “When we organize and fight for our collective needs, it pulls from the people who have so much that they don’t know what to do with it and puts it in the hands of people who are struggling every single day.”

Existing law, the “Protect App-Based Drivers and Services Act,” created by Proposition (Prop) 22, a ballot initiative, categorizes app-based drivers for companies such as Uber and Lyft as independent contractors.

Prop 22 was approved by voters in the November 2020 statewide general election. Since then, Prop 22 has been in court facing challenges from groups trying to overturn it.

However, last July, Prop 22 was upheld by the California Supreme Court last July.

In a 2024, statement after the ruling, Lyft stated that 80% of the rideshare drivers they surveyed acknowledged that Prop 22 “was good for them” and “median hourly earnings of drivers on the Lyft platform in California were 22% higher in 2023 than in 2019.”

Wicks and Berman crafted AB 1340 to circumvent Prop 22.

“With AB 1340, we are putting power in the hands of hundreds of thousands of workers to raise the bar in their industry and create a model for an equitable and innovative partnership in the tech sector,” Berman said.

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Activism

California Holds the Line on DEI as Trump Administration Threatens School Funding

The conflict began on Feb. 14, when Craig Trainor, acting assistant secretary for civil rights at the U.S. Department of Education (DOE), issued a “Dear Colleague” letter warning that DEI-related programs in public schools could violate federal civil rights law. The letter, which cited Title VI of the Civil Rights Act and the 2023 Supreme Court ruling in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, which ended race-conscious admissions, ordered schools to eliminate race-based considerations in areas such as admissions, scholarships, hiring, discipline, and student programming.

Published

2 days ago

April 28, 2025

Oakland Post

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By Joe W. Bowers Jr
California Black Media

California education leaders are pushing back against the Trump administration’s directive to dismantle diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs in its K-12 public schools — despite threats to take away billions in federal funding.

The conflict began on Feb. 14, when Craig Trainor, acting assistant secretary for civil rights at the U.S. Department of Education (DOE), issued a “Dear Colleague” letter warning that DEI-related programs in public schools could violate federal civil rights law. The letter, which cited Title VI of the Civil Rights Act and the 2023 Supreme Court ruling in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, which ended race-conscious admissions, ordered schools to eliminate race-based considerations in areas such as admissions, scholarships, hiring, discipline, and student programming.

According to Trainor, “DEI programs discriminate against one group of Americans to favor another.”

On April 3, the DOE escalated the pressure, sending a follow-up letter to states demanding that every local educational agency (LEA) certify — within 10 business days — that they were not using federal funds to support “illegal DEI.” The certification requirement, tied to continued federal aid, raised the stakes for California, which receives more than $16 billion annually in federal education funding.

So far, California has refused to comply with the DOE order.

“There is nothing in state or federal law that outlaws the broad concepts of ‘diversity,’ ‘equity,’ or ‘inclusion,’” wrote David Schapira, California’s Chief Deputy Superintendent of Public Instruction, in an April 4 letter to superintendents and charter school administrators. Schapira noted that all of California’s more than 1,000 traditional public school districts submit Title VI compliance assurances annually and are subject to regular oversight by the state and the federal government.

In a formal response to the DOE on April 11, the California Department of Education, the State Board of Education, and State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond collectively rejected the certification demand, calling it vague, legally unsupported, and procedurally improper.

“California and its nearly 2,000 LEAs (including traditional public schools and charter schools) have already provided the requisite guarantee that its programs and services are, and will be, in compliance with Title VI and its implementing regulation,” the letter says.

Thurmond added in a statement, “Today, California affirmed existing and continued compliance with federal laws while we stay the course to move the needle for all students. As our responses to the United States Department of Education state and as the plain text of state and federal laws affirm, there is nothing unlawful about broad core values such as diversity, equity and inclusion. I am proud of our students, educators and school communities who continue to focus on teaching and learning, despite federal actions intended to distract and disrupt.”

California officials say that the federal government cannot change existing civil rights enforcement standards without going through formal rule-making procedures, which require public notice and comment.

Other states are taking a similar approach. In a letter to the DOE, Daniel Morton-Bentley, deputy commissioner and counsel for the New York State Education Department, wrote, “We understand that the current administration seeks to censor anything it deems ‘diversity, equity & inclusion.’ But there are no federal or State laws prohibiting the principles of DEI.”