Labor
As teachers around the country organize, Oakland teachers could be next—they’re voting this week to authorize the teacher’s union to call a strike.
In Oakland, a shortage of school nurses has led to difficult working conditions—heavy caseload, treating severe health conditions, and high stress—that nurses say make it challenging to meet the health needs of Oakland students.
More than 7,700 hotel workers across the country walked off of their jobs and began the largest strike in history against the largest hotel corporation in the world, Marriott.
In Alameda County, there are multiple barriers—cost, capacity, hours of service—that parents have to navigate in order to access quality child care.
Billion-dollar dialysis companies and a labor union are spending tens of millions of dollars to sway Proposition 8 votes their way on Election Day. Health experts say the proposition is unlikely to improve care for dialysis patients and may put care out of reach for patients in low-income areas. But they also say risky practices in the industry put patients’ lives at risk.
The Peralta College District misclassifies long-term employees as “temporary,” denying them higher pay and benefits, union officials say.
“I always was ashamed, and I always thought of myself as a prostitute,” said Elizabeth Quiroz. “But now that I know this, I’m educating myself. That’s not what happened. I was a victim. Now I’m a survivor.”
As the teachers’ union and school district continue contract negotiations, teachers across Oakland demonstrated last week to demand smaller class sizes and a pay raise be included in the new contract.
A state bill allowing cooks to sell their homemade meals passed, but Alameda County remains undecided on the issue.