Teachers on Strike in Union City and Hayward Make New Pay Raise Offer

A teachers strike affecting 12 schools in Union City and Hayward was set to enter its third week on Monday, as negotiators for the New Haven Unified School District reviewed a new contract offer from the teachers union.þþThe union’s negotiating team on Sunday proposed a 3% salary increase retroactive to Jan. 1, and another 3% increase on July 1. The union originally sought a raise of 10% over two years.þþDistrict officials had not given a public response to the offer as of Sunday evening.þþMeanwhile, there was concern that the impasse could harm the future of high school seniors who are scheduled to take their finals this week. The district serves 11,000 students, but just 1,200 students have been attending school during the strike, officials said.þþ“Both sides need to come to an agreement,” said Dora Lepe, a lifelong Union City resident with nieces and nephews in the school district. “I’m on the teachers’ side, but everybody is losing sight of the fact that it’s the students who are losing out.”þþTony Thurmond, the state superintendent of public instruction, joined the negotiations as the two sides met Friday at the Alameda County Office of Education in Hayward, but that meeting failed to end with an agreement on how much pay the New Haven Teachers Association members should receive.þþThe teachers union’s previous offer on Friday had included a 3.7% raise for the 2018-19 school year and a 3.26% raise for next year, which would have covered cost-of-living increases, said union President Joe Ku’e Angeles.þþThe teachers strike, which began May 20, is the first in the district. The union includes 585 teachers, counselors, nurses, psychologists and speech therapists, and 93% of them have been active on the picket lines, Ku’e Angeles said.þþTeachers started the strike by demanding the 10% raise over two years, while the school district offered a one-time 3% raise for the 2018-19 school year and an ongoing 1% raise beginning during the 2019-20 school year.þþ“It could end pretty much at any time as long as we get to a place of common understanding,” Ku’e Angeles said. “We are apart now, but not as much as we once were.”