Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the City of Oakland administration has tried to attack our union. Before coming to the bargaining table, they cut the hours of our ‘temporary, part-time’ members and threatened mass layoffs of permanent workers. Only through a long campaign were we able to beat back the Mayor’s attack and force her to take her further concessions off the table.

To win, we staged dynamic actions of our own, like our Lake Merritt car caravan in May, and asked our co-workers to speak multiple times at City Council meetings to remind the City’s elected officials how much our community depends on our services. Throughout, we worked with Oakland’s other unions to present the City with a unified front.

We also joined our community in a powerful march to support Black Lives Matter, on June 13, and marched with our labor siblings in ILWU in a port shutdown on June 19.

We also met with the City a number of times and heard their proposals. Each time we met with the City they proposed more concessions. Each time we said, “No!” and then showed them better ways to save money with no cuts to our workers. Our position at the table was that we would not accept layoffs, furloughs, pay cuts, or other cruel cuts, and our concerted actions in the streets, our solidarity in the workplace, and our unity with our community backed up that position and allowed us to win!