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US and World Politics

Oakland Longshore Workers, Teachers Join Forces
to Combat City’s “Privatization”

By Michael Cabanatuan

Hundreds of schoolteachers, students and longshore workers raised their voices and protest signs in unison at a Thursday rally in front of Oakland City Hall, vowing to help each other in their respective battles.

The rally came just hours before the Oakland City Council was scheduled to consider an environmental impact report that would bring the Oakland A’s a step closer to building a new stadium and waterfront development at Howard Terminal near Jack London Square.

The International Longshore Workers Union, which represents crane operators and other workers at the Port of Oakland, opposes the plan, which it says would lead to the ruination of the port—and their jobs.

Oakland’s teachers, joined by parents and students, are fighting scaled-back plans to close some of the Oakland Unified School District’s schools to deal with declining enrollment and falling finances. While the school board recently reduced the number of campuses it plans to close, protesters say that’s not good enough.

The noon rally brought together more than 200 ILWU members along with members of the Oakland Education Association and some students and parents. They gathered in the Frank Ogawa Plaza amphitheater—in front of a banner reading “Stop privatizing our schools, our port”—and pledged solidarity in their fights.

Their common theme was that Oakland’s public port and schools should be kept public, with the port protected from the stadium, condominiums and waterfront development, and the schools guarded from shutdowns and a proliferation of charter schools.

While the longshore workers, with their rich labor history on the waterfront, and the Oakland teachers might seem like curious collaborators, the ILWU has a long history of working with and supporting other unions and community organizations in social justice struggles, sometimes shutting down port operations.

That didn’t happen on February 17, 2022, but several speakers suggested it should—and will—if Oakland teachers go on strike in March, as they’ve threatened to do.

“Shutting the port down and shutting the schools down has the opportunity to make a difference,” said Bob Mandel, a supporter of the Oakland teachers.

San Francisco Chronicle, February 17, 2021

https://www.sfchronicle.com/eastbay/article/Oakland-longshore-workers-teachers-join-forces-16928105.php