City Government

Opinion: City Workers are Standing Up for a Better Oakland

Published

6 years ago

June 14, 2019

City workers are fighting for what we love: the people of Oakland.

City services, including picking up illegal dumping, filling potholes, and implementing affordable housing programs don’t happen by magic. Without an intentional investment in these services, it is not sustainable, and it takes people to do that work.

Oakland is booming, and still certain communities are not transitioning from the boom or services. City workers make these services happen, but 20 percent of non-uniformed civilian positions in the city are vacant. This is the highest vacancy rate in recent history. We’re stretched thin. Eighty percent of the people cannot do 100 percent of the work.

Nearly one out of every five positions in both the Department of Public Works and in the Department of Transportation is vacant. That means illegal dumping doesn’t get removed, and potholes don’t get filled because we don’t have the staff to get the job done.

Oakland is facing a housing and homelessness crisis, yet 23 percent of the positions in our Housing and Community Development Department are vacant. Oakland’s Rental Adjustment Program only has 18 full-time staff to serve 90,000 rental units. Each of our workers is working on more than 200 cases at any given time.

The backlog on processing illegal rent adjustments is up to five months. Many Oakland tenants can’t afford inflated rent for five months, and that wait period could leave them homeless.

This reality is not lost on the city workers who are working these cases. The reason we can’t keep positions filled in our city is because many of our coworkers leave for higher paying jobs—not necessarily at Google or Facebook, but at nearby public agencies where they can get a 15-20 percent pay increase.

We have chosen careers in public service because we are committed to our Oakland community. Oakland’s leadership and unions have a common goal to protect the health, safety and wellness of our workforce and constituents.

That’s why we’re demanding that the city’s leadership invest in city services, and this has to start with a fair wage increase for city workers.

City workers don’t go into public service for the money. We stuck through the Great Recession, when our take-home pay was slashed by 10 percent to keep the city afloat. Those of us that are still here continue to stay because we truly love Oakland.

Oakland deserves our very best city leadership working collaboratively to pass a budget that invests in city services and puts resources back into our communities.

Members of IFPTE Local 21

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Activism

Oakland Post: Week of June 4 – 10, 2025

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of June 4-10, 2025

Published

3 days ago

June 7, 2025

Oakland Post

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Activism

Remembering George Floyd

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — Minnesota State Attorney General Keith Ellison acknowledges that the Floyd case five years ago involved a situation in which due process was denied, and five years later, the president is currently dismissing “due process. “The Minnesota Atty General also says, “Trump is trying to attack constitutional rule, attacking congressional authority and judicial decision-making.” George Floyd was an African American man killed by police who knocked on his neck and on his back, preventing him from breathing.

Published

1 week ago

June 2, 2025

Oakland Post

Mural showing the portrait of George Floyd in Mauerpark in Berlin. To the left of the portrait the lettering "I can't Breathe" was added, on the right side the three hashtags #GeorgeFloyd, #Icantbreathe and #Sayhisname. The mural was completed by Eme Street Art (facebook name) / Eme Free Thinker (signature) on 29 May 2020. (Wikimedia Commons)

By April Ryan
BlackPressUSA Newswire

“The president’s been very clear he has no intentions of pardoning Derek Chauvin, and it’s not a request that we’re looking at,” confirms a senior staffer at the Trump White House. That White House response results from public hope, including from a close Trump ally, Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene. The timing of Greene’s hopes coincides with the Justice Department’s recent decision to end oversight of local police accused of abuse. It also falls on the fifth anniversary of the police-involved death of George Floyd on May 25th. The death sparked national and worldwide outrage and became a transitional moment politically and culturally, although the outcry for laws on police accountability failed.

The death forced then-Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden to focus on deadly police force and accountability. His efforts while president to pass the George Floyd Justice in policing act failed. The death of George Floyd also put a spotlight on the Black community, forcing then-candidate Biden to choose a Black woman running mate. Kamala Harris ultimately became vice president of the United States alongside Joe Biden. Minnesota State Attorney General Keith Ellison prosecuted the cases against the officers involved in the death of Floyd. He remembers,” Trump was in office when George Floyd was killed, and I would blame Trump for creating a negative environment for police-community relations. Remember, it was him who said when the looting starts, the shooting starts, it was him who got rid of all the consent decrees that were in place by the Obama administration.”

In 2025, Police-involved civilian deaths are up by “about 100 to about 11 hundred,” according to Ellison. Ellison acknowledges that the Floyd case five years ago involved a situation in which due process was denied, and five years later, the president is currently dismissing “due process. “The Minnesota Atty General also says, “Trump is trying to attack constitutional rule, attacking congressional authority and judicial decision-making.” George Floyd was an African-American man killed by police who knocked on his neck and on his back, preventing him from breathing. During those minutes on the ground, Floyd cried out for his late mother several times. Police subdued Floyd for an alleged counterfeit $20 bill.