RICHMOND — Caught in contentious negotiations over new contracts, two West Contra Costa Unified College District unions have overwhelmingly voted in favor of hanging if district management can not adequately meet their calls for.
Greater than 95% of members represented by the United Academics of Richmond and Teamsters Native 856 individually voted not too long ago to authorize strikes. Which means about 3,000 district workers, from academics and training specialists to upkeep and meals service employees, may stroll off the job if offers aren’t struck within the coming months.
“Our district needs to prioritize stability for our students, now,” United Academics of Richmond President Francisco Ortiz stated in a press launch saying the vote. “We are committed to do whatever it takes to win the fully staffed classrooms our students so desperately need.”
Contracts for each unions expired June 30 after negotiations on new contracts started in early 2025. Related sticking factors have led to impasses within the separate negotiation processes, now requiring a 3rd celebration to help with mediation and fact-finding. As soon as that course of concludes and a last report is issued, the unions can formally legally strike.
Each unions are looking for higher pay for his or her members, higher staffing ranges and different improved working situations. The requests come at a fiscally unstable time for the district, which has needed to make tens of tens of millions of {dollars} price of cuts in recent times to take care of native management. However union members have argued the district may afford to fulfill union calls for partly by adjusting the quantity spent on contracted companies.
“Teamsters are the backbone of the West Contra Costa Unified School District and should be treated as such,” stated Peter Finn, secretary-treasurer of Native 856, in an announcement. “Workers know the essential services they provide to students and their families throughout the region and won’t settle for less than they deserve. Striking is always a last resort, but the school district has left us little to no choice.”
Representatives with the district workplace and Board of Trustees President Leslie Reckler didn’t reply to requests for remark as of press time Friday. However district management have taken clear steps in preparation for potential strikes.
Throughout a particular assembly Monday, trustees voted 4-1 to pay substitute academics $550 per day if employees strike and to permit the superintendent to take authorized motion to cease the strike if the board is unable to fulfill inside 24 hours to vote in favor of that motion itself.
Superintendent Cheryl Cotton, who requested that pay be set at $750, stated the elevated charges had been mandatory to guard the constitutional rights of scholars to entry a secure and academic atmosphere by attractive individuals to cross the picket line.
“We are working to avoid a strike as best as we can, but in the event of a strike, this is action that the board would need to consider,” Cotton stated. “These are paying for people who are going to have to cross the picket line, that are going to be yelled at, be insulted. It’s, I wouldn’t say hazard pay, but it is a challenging situation.”
Substitute academics are presently being supplied about $280 a day, Cotton stated. Trustee Demetrio Gonzalez Hoy, the lone vote in opposition to the measure, warned that tripling the day by day substitute trainer charge may very well be seen as a union busting tactic that may additionally encourage employees to strike longer.
“My per diem as a teacher was $290. If I was making that today and I saw you were paying subs $750, I would be on the strike line as long as it took for the district to pay me what I need. It’s going to be an insult for a lot of them,” stated Hoy, who as an alternative proposed elevating the speed to $400 in case of a strike.
Providing elevated pay to substitute academics throughout a strike is routine apply, Cotton stated, noting the Oakland Unified College District supplied $700 to substitute academics when its academics union went on strike final 12 months. No matter what steps district management takes, Cotton stated the unions will doubtless see these measures as “something that is not in favor of their goals.”
Whereas caring for workers wants is essential, Trustee Jamela Smith-Folds additionally argued the board’s first precedence is the scholars.
However members of each unions argue their causes – aimed toward attracting and sustaining high quality employees by aggressive pay and manageable workloads – are about creating the most effective atmosphere potential for college kids.
“Instead of offering astronomical substitute rates, or spending on expensive outside contractors, our district should be prioritizing our students and classrooms,” Ortiz stated. “We don’t want to strike, but West Contra Costa teachers are making it clear that we are more than willing to do everything we can for our community.”
