OGEA Member Information

By Bob Prola, OGEA Vice President

bobprola@gmail.com

As our contract negotiations have begun, there have been many questions and quite a bit of confusion about what we are negotiating for right now and what is coming up next.  OGEA is currently in the final year of a three year contract from 2019-2022.  In school district contracts, it is common for both the union and district management to have a limited number of “reopeners” for the later years of the contract, which allow the parties to renegotiate small parts of the contract.

Current Negotiations – Reopeners for this school year.

Your OGEA bargaining team is currently allowed to negotiate about a very limited portion of the OGEA contract.  These negotiations have the potential to affect our contract this year.  They have made proposals about salary, benefits, and class size based on surveys and feedback from OGEA members.  The current bargaining updates are about these limited reopeners and are centered around gains that we are trying to make.  When this is settled, many of the agreements will take effect immediately.  It is important to recognize that this is not the last time that we will negotiate for gains in our contract.

Successor Agreement – Three year contract starting next school year.

As soon as we finish negotiating the limited reopeners for this year, we have the opportunity to open up and negotiate the entire OGEA contract.  This allows us to negotiate further gains in the areas of salary, benefits, and class size.  Importantly, we will also have the opportunity to make gains in any area of the OGEA contract that we choose to open up.  Our contract construction committee, bargaining team, and executive board will seek input in determining which articles of the contract our membership wants renegotiated.  

(Note:  Participation in surveys and OGEA school site meetings is critical.)  When this three year contract is settled, we will likely have a limited number of reopeners for year two and year three of that contract.  School district contracts are generally limited to 3 years in California.  Agreements reached on the successor contract will not take effect until next school year, although the bargaining process could be completed this year.

How can OGEA members help?

• Read and discuss bargaining updates with other OGEA members.
• Look for what the bargaining team is asking you to do on the updates.
• Participate in organizing actions such as wearing OGEA t-shirts, emailing campaigns, speaking at board meetings, and other union actions.
• Complete surveys and give input in a timely manner.
• Attend OGEA 10-minute meetings at your school site and communicate with your OGEA site representative.  Ask them what is happening currently.
• If you know of someone who is not a member, tell them to join.
• Ask questions of the appropriate committee: ogeabargaining@gmail.com, president@ogea.org and organizing.ogea@gmail.com
• Find out how you can get involved in an OGEA committee.  Ask our union president, Maripaz Berlin.  

“Power concedes nothing without a demand.  It never did and it never will.” 

– Frederick Douglass