Summary of OEA’s Initial Proposal

• Compensation: 22.97% raise in 1st year (retroactive from Nov 2022), with a possibility to reopen negotiation over salary in subsequent years; no pay plateaus in salary schedule (currently salary stagnates in years 12-20)
• Class size: 20 max for TK-3 in high-needs schools, 29 for secondary high-needs
• Nurses: 1 or 0.5 FTE per site based on the medical acuity
• Counselors: ratio of 300:1 by 2025  / phase in counselors in K-5
• Elementary prep: one daily teacher-direct prep by 2024-25
• SpEd: caseload hard caps 
• Substitutes: 100% of Step 1/Column 1 on Salary Schedule, Health Benefits Parity, Provide all needed materials (including keys)
• Common Good: Culturally Relevant Curriculum, more tech support, limit standardized testing, Community Support Services (housing insecurity and bilingual mental health services), Community Schools (new job positions to lead this initiative), Reparations for Black Students, No School Closures, Safety & Environmental, Student Transportation
• Articles for many other areas, such as social workers, newcomers, teacher librarians, parental leave, physical education, and more

OEA has submitted a detailed contract proposal of 21 Articles to OUSD. However, the district has barely submitted 6 articles as of February 26, not including the compensation article!

How can we get a strong contract?

Union Members join organizing efforts around bargaining when they feel informed about the bargaining process, and even more so when they have a say in it. This means:

Full transparency and two-way communication between the BT and all OEA members throughout the bargaining process

Members must be given regular bargaining updates after each session. Some unions livestream their bargaining sessions with the employers, which allows members to get real time updates. But even if we do not livestream sessions, the BT can share notes from bargaining sessions with all members. 

Most importantly, members need to know what the union proposals are before the district receives them. This allows members to object to concessions that are unacceptable to them, as opposed to simply finding out when it’s too late to do anything about it. When members are able to make clear what they’re unwilling to compromise on, they are more ready to fight for it.

Counter the District’s “we can’t afford it” narrative

About 60% of OEA dues go to CTA (and 20% go to NEA). CTA has expert researchers that can analyze district budgets and expose the tens of millions of dollars OUSD spends on top admin and consultants, putting OEA’s proposals in context.  In the past, we have presented data showing that excessive District spending on central admin and private contractors amounted to far more than the total cost of our “expensive” proposals to increase salaries, cut class size and caseloads and increase prep time. We need that info to rally support for our demands and overcome district propaganda.