West Contra Costa Teachers Are Near a Pivotal Moment in Their Potential Strike

West Contra Costa Unified School District educators are days away from receiving a report that could put to rest the threat of a strike — or make it official.

A mediator appointed by the California Public Employment Relations Board is expected to issue recommendations to the district and its teachers union by Friday in an effort to resolve the months-long contract negotiations that could push more than 1,500 educators to strike.

If the two sides can’t come to an agreement after the recommendations are issued, United Teachers of Richmond can then go on strike after a 48-hour notice.

Negotiations between the district and the union have been stalled for months over pay, health coverage, class sizes and services for students with disabilities. That led the union to declare an impasse in August, which kicked off a required process through PERB before the union could legally begin a work stoppage.

“We’re fighting because we love our students, because we refuse to let another generation of our kiddos experience a system that’s crumbling all around them,” union president Francisco Ortiz told KQED.

UTR has proposed a 10% pay raise over the next two years and full health coverage. The district’s most recent counterproposal included a 2% pay raise for the 2025-26 school year.

The union argues that an increase in compensation will attract and maintain quality educators to help the district address its staffing shortage. For this year alone in special education services, Ortiz said more than 255 students have gone without a speech-language pathologist assigned to them for five weeks.

But the district has said that it can only afford to do so much. District officials cut millions of dollars from their budget to stay solvent this year, and they still face additional cuts.

The district did not respond to a request for comment from KQED, but in a Monday night letter to community members, it said that its representatives on the state fact-finding panel have been meeting with the chairperson since the last hearings on Nov. 17 and Nov. 18.

“We are committed to continuing these discussions into next week and through the break — whatever it takes — to try to reach a fair resolution and avert a strike that would only hurt our students,” wrote Raechelle Forrest, director of district communications.

Officials have also begun preparing for a potential strike, saying that the district is “committed to keeping our schools open.” WCCUSD’s school board voted to increase pay for substitute teachers last month, bumping the usual daily pay from $280 to up to $550 if the union goes on strike.

In addition to UTR’s members, more than a thousand other district staff members were set to strike soon after the teachers union.

If UTR does go on strike, it could trigger a sympathy strike by IFPTE Local 21, which represents school supervisors.

Teamsters Local 856, which includes paraprofessionals and clerical staff, came to a tentative agreement with the district on Wednesday after authorizing a strike only days after UTR’s authorization. Local 856 also cited staffing and pay concerns as reasons for a potential strike.

“The gains achieved by UTR and Teamsters Local 856 directly affect the compensation of our unit through our ‘me too’ clause. When they secure a higher wage increase, we will also benefit if the increase they secure is more than what we secured,” IFPTE said when recommending the strike.

The mediator’s report this week isn’t binding, so the district isn’t required to offer the union a new proposal after its release.

“If the district is unwilling to [accept those recommendations], then we’re also ready to take that next step,” Ortiz said. “We’re ready to do our part, and the district needs to do theirs.”