Hundreds of Oakland city workers disrupted a council meeting Tuesday to demand a fair contract.
The workers, represented by IFPTE Local 21, a union that represents more than 1,000 city employees, stormed into the Public Works and Transportation Committee meeting at City Hall around noon.
They shouted slogans and raised signs calling for fair cost-of-living adjustments to their salaries, stronger health benefits, and work-from-home privileges, among other demands.
They handed Acting City Administrator Betsy Lake their demands and filed out of the council chambers shortly afterward.
The IFPTE Local 21 bargaining team has been negotiating for a fair contract with the city administration since the end of March. However, there has been no agreement yet, and workers believe that the city administration is not negotiating in good faith.
Chase Fowler, civil engineer for the Oakland Department of Transportation and IFPTE Local 21 member, said that bargaining sessions have been “frustrating,” as the city has rejected a telework proposal that asked for work-from-home privileges for the city workers, and has not responded to some of the union’s other non-economic proposals.
A cost-of-living adjustment increase to workers’ salaries is also a major sticking point.
“The city has talked time and time again about how things are getting more expensive in the Bay,” said Fowler, “and how can they expect workers to live in Oakland if you can’t pay workers the salaries that they need to live here.”
He said that there is still a long way to go before the union votes to authorize a strike, but added that low salaries are prompting many city staff to quit, creating a vacancy crisis.
“We have a 25% vacancy rate, which is the highest in the region,” said Fowler. “That prevents us from doing the work that we need to do to deliver services to Oaklanders. So, it’s really frustrating to do the work of two or three people, and the city doesn’t prioritize the things they’ve got to do to hire more workers.”
The City Administrator’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.