Bay Area

Teachers’ Union Says School District Not Honoring Labor Agreement Reached in Strike

Published

6 years ago

November 14, 2019

The Oakland teachers’ union, the Oakland Education Association (OEA) , is calling on Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) Supt. Kyla Johnson-Trammell “to immediately reverse decisions” that violate terms of the school district’s contract with teachers, including provisions that were ratified as part of the settlement of the seven-day teachers’ strike earlier this year.

“Rank and file members are concerned that they’re not respecting our contract,” said Brian Crowell, teacher and secretary of the OEA Grievance Committee.

“We’re not talking about a grievance here or there,” he said. “We’re talking about broad violations of the contract, our fundamental collective bargaining agreement.”

Crowell said that union members are now facing “retaliation and bullying by administrators,” which he believes reflects the district’s disrespect for educators.

Although the strike is over, Crowell said that the union is continuing to organize, fighting for its members and in the interests of the community. “Our loyalty is to the students and the community. That is our primary concern,” said Crowell, adding that another major union concern is school closures.

Brian Crowell. Photo by Ken Epstein.

“That was a big issue during the strike, and has not been resolved. There is a disputed question whether that is a (legitimate) area of bargaining, but it is something that has a huge impact on working conditions.”

The school board has voted to close or merge several schools in 2019 and is expected to close more school sites from a list of 24 over next several years.

“School closures disproportionately harm Black and Brown students,” said the OEA in a petition it is circulating to union members. “OUSD has shown no evidence that (closures) improve learning or save money…Reinvest in our public schools, (don’t) close them,” the petition said.

The document also claims that the district withheld “$9 million from the employee healthcare fund, despite a signed settlement agreement reached in September 2018.”

The petition warned that without these payments, the fund will become “insolvent within a year” and force employees to begin to make “dramatic out-of-pocket” payments for their individual health plans.

For many years, healthcare coverage has been provided 100 percent as part of the union contract, but according to Crowell the agreement signed by the union and the district last year said that effective July 1, the district would pay $2.25 million annually until the final payment is made by June 30, 2024.

“July 1 came, and the district didn’t do it,” he said, pointing out that this issue not only effects teachers but also other school employee unions, including United Administrators of Oakland Schools (UAOS) , SEIU 1021, AFSCME Local 257, as well as teamsters, building trades and others.

The OEA petition also focuses on the district’s failure to hire staff to support student learning – including newcomer teachers, speech pathologists and school psychologists – which was part of the agreement that ended the teachers’ strike in February.

In addition the petition claims that OUSD “refused to honor our personal leave contact language.” Under the contract, teachers are entitled to five days a year of personal leave, which automatically converts to sick leave if unused. When an employee retires, accumulated sick leaves can be added to total length of service to increase pension benefits.

The district is failing to convert unused personal leave to sick leave, Crowell said.

In response to questions from the Oakland Post, district spokesperson John Sasaki said, “First and foremost, no fund is going insolvent (or even could go insolvent). This isn’t possible as the District pays its share of healthcare costs from the General Fund. Pursuant to existing agreements, we are working with all of our union partners to resolve outstanding issues related to potential healthcare set-asides by the District. We are committed to honoring our labor agreements, and addressing any concerns with interpretation, audit findings or hiring by working with OEA.”

Speaking to the school board Wednesday evening about the teachers’ union concerns, OEA President Keith Brown said, “The district is not respecting the agreement you made to hire more psychologists. You’re not respecting the agreement you made with us to hire more speech therapists (and) more newcomer staff. You are not respecting the agreement you made with us regarding our health care.

“I can’t believe what you say because I see what you do.”

Ken Epstein

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Oakland Post: Week of May 21 – 27, 2025

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of May 21 – 27, 2025

Published

4 days ago

May 25, 2025

Oakland Post

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Bay Area

Chevron Richmond Installs Baker Hughes Flare.IQ, Real-time Flare Monitoring, Control and Reduction System

While the sight of flaring can cause concern in the community, flares are essential safety systems that burn pollutants to prevent them from being released directly into the atmosphere. They activate during startup and shut-down of facility units or during upsets or equipment malfunctions. The typical flare stack is about 200 feet high so that vapors are well above street levels.

Published

1 week ago

May 19, 2025

Oakland Post

Image courtesy The Richmond Standard.

The Richmond Standard

Chevron Richmond recently installed flare.IQ, a real-time, automated system that will improve the facility’s flaring performance.

The technology, developed by Panametrics, a Baker Hughes business, uses sensors to monitor, reduce and control flaring in real time. It collects and assesses data on refinery processes, such as temperature, pressure, gas flow and gas composition, and adjusts accordingly to ensure flares burn more efficiently and cleanly, leading to fewer emissions.

“The cleaner the flare, the brighter the flame can look,” said Duy Nguyen, a Chevron Richmond flaring specialist. “If you see a brighter flame than usual on a flare, that actually means flare.IQ is operating as intended.”

“A key element in Baker Hughes’ emissions abatement portfolio, flare.IQ has a proven track record in optimizing flare operations and significantly reducing emissions,” said Colin Hehir, vice president of Panametrics, a Baker Hughes business. “By partnering with Chevron Richmond, one of the first operators in North America to adopt flare.IQ, we are looking forward to enhancing the plant’s flaring operations.”

The installation of flare.IQ is part of a broader and ongoing effort by Chevron Richmond to improve flare performance, particularly in response to increased events after the new, more efficient hydrogen plant was brought online in 2019.

Since then, the company has invested $25 million — and counting — into flare minimization. As part of the effort, a multidisciplinary refinery team was formed to find and implement ways to improve operational reliability and ultimately reduce flaring. Operators and other employees involved in management of flares and flare gas recovery systems undergo new training.

“It is important to me that the community knows we are working hard to lower emissions and improve our flaring performance,” Nguyen said.

Also evolving is the process by which community members are notified of flaring incidents. The Community Warning System (CWS), operated by Contra Costa County is an “all-hazard” public warning system.

Residents can opt-in to receive alerts via text, e-mail and landline. The CWS was recently expanded to enable residents to receive notifications for “Level 1” incidents, which are considered informational as they do not require any community action.

For more information related to these topics, check out the resources included on the Chevron Richmond, CAER and Contra Costa Health websites. Residents are also encouraged to follow @chevronrichmond and @RFDCAOnline on Facebook and X (formerly Twitter), where additional information may be posted during an incident.

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Oakland Hosts Town Hall Addressing Lead Hazards in City Housing

According to the city, there are 22,000 households in need of services for lead issues, most in predominantly low-income or Black and Latino neighborhoods, but only 550 to 600 homes are addressed every year. The city is hoping to use part of the multimillion-dollar settlement to increase the number of households served each year.

Published

2 weeks ago

May 18, 2025

Oakland Post

iStock.

By Magaly Muñoz

The City of Oakland’s Housing and Community Development Department hosted a town hall in the Fruitvale to discuss the efforts being undertaken to remove lead primarily found in housing in East and West Oakland.

In 2021, the city was awarded $14 million out of a $24 million legal settlement from a lawsuit against paint distributors for selling lead-based paint that has affected hundreds of families in Oakland and Alameda County. The funding is intended to be used for lead poisoning reduction and prevention services in paint only, not water or other sources as has been found recently in schools across the city.

The settlement can be used for developing or enhancing programs that abate lead-based paint, providing services to individuals, particularly exposed children, educating the public about hazards caused by lead paint, and covering attorney’s fees incurred in pursuing litigation.

Most of the homes affected were built prior to 1978, and 12,000 of these homes are considered to be at high risk for lead poisoning.

City councilmember Noel Gallo, who represents a few of the lead-affected Census tracts, said the majority of the poisoned kids and families are coming directly from neighborhoods like the Fruitvale.

“When you look at the [kids being admitted] at the children’s hospital, they’re coming from this community,” Gallo said at the town hall.

In order to eventually rid the highest impacted homes of lead poisoning, the city intends to create programs and activities such as lead-based paint inspections and assessments, full abatement designed to permanently eliminate lead-based paint, or partial abatement for repairs, painting, and specialized cleaning meant for temporary reduction of hazards.

In feedback for what the city could implement in their programming, residents in attendance of the event said they want more accessibility to resources, like blood testing, and information from officials about lead poisoning symptoms, hotlines for assistance, and updates on the reduction of lead in their communities.

Attendees also asked how they’d know where they are on the prioritization list and what would be done to address lead in the water found at several school sites in Oakland last year.

City staff said there will be a follow-up event to gather more community input for programming in August, with finalizations happening in the fall and a pilot launch in early 2026.