Politics & Government

San Leandro Teachers, Nurses Staged Labor Actions On May Day

Unionized teachers picketed over looming layoffs while nurses called a one-day walkout at San Leandro Hospital to protest a possible closure and stalled contract talks.

 

It's a busy May Day in San Leandro as this witnessed separate actions by unionized teachers and nurses.

Teachers and their supporters rallied at San Leandro High Tuesday afternoon to protest the to lay off dozens of teachers, counselors and librarians, among other affected programs and personnel.

Find out what's happening in San Leandrowith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Separately, registered nurses (RNs) at San Leandro Hospital staged the third in a series of one-day walkouts today. Their union, the California Nurses Association (CNA), is in the midst of year-old negotiations with the Sutter Health hospital chain.

Teachers want to draw the line.

Find out what's happening in San Leandrowith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The teachers' picketed today to push back against a school board plan for more layoffs to deal with a potential funding shortfall if voters reject the tax increases that Governor Brown has put on the November ballot.

Some 58 positions have been cut over the past couple of years, increasing class sizes in many schools. Another 20 reductions were recently approved to save the district over $1.43 million.

On top of those reductions, in March the school board for the equivalent of 53 full-time positions in case the failure of Brown's tax cuts opens another $2.54 million shortfall in the district's budget.

Student at San Leandro High supported the teachers with a that dramatized the main issue separating the teachers' union from the district: the district wants teachers to renew contract concessions that could lessen or eliminate the need for layoffs; teachers and their supporters want the district to dig more deeply into its reserve funds to accomplish the same objective.

“None of these cuts have to happen,” said Anita Waldron, with the San Leandro Teacher's Association.  “The school district has enough money in reserves to keep these talented staff members at work.”

Teachers argue that the District has a 10.63% reserve, more than three times the state mandate of 3%.

School board president Morgan Mack-Rose has said that isn't the whole story.

When the student ended their hunger strike Mack-Rose said some of those reserve funds have already been used to avert even more drastic cuts. This has shrunk the district's cushion from $9.8 million in October to about $4 million as of March -- or about 5.8 percent of the district's roughly $68 million budget.

Mack-Rose has said the district is willing to use some of its remaining reserve to avert layoffs but clearly wants concessions from teachers in return.

SLTA President Jon Sherr said neighboring districts like Fremont, San Lorenzo, Hayward and Fremont have less in reserves, but they aren’t planning on laying off any teachers.

Local nurses strike part of a larger action.

Several other Sutter hospitals in the Bay Area are affected by the walkout which includes 4,500 RNs, as well as respiratory and radiology technicians.

CNA says Sutter wants givebacks from nurses even though it made $4 billion in profits since 2007, and pays many top executives salaries over $1 million. For instance CNA said Sutter chief executive Pat Fry makes $2,260 per hour, or $4.7 million a year.

Sutter says nurses at its local hospitals earn one-third more than the average Bay Area nurse, or roughly $136,000 a year. Nurses have gotten 20 percent pay increases in the last three years, Sutter says, versus four percent pay hikes for the average Bay Area worker.

In San Leandro, these contract disputes are compounded by the pending transformation of the local hospital. Sutter recently won a long legal fight to secure ownership of the hospital but it has not yet disclosed its plans.

A San Leandro City Council subcommittee recently heard county officials of what planners expect Sutter to do -- close the hospital's emergency room and turn the location into some other form of health facility.

CNA has called a 4:00 pm rally Tuesday at the San Leandro Senior Community Center to mobilize opponents of a hospital closure.

(Get San Leandro Patch delivered by email. Like us on Facebook. Follow us on Twitter @sanleandropatch)


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here