Contact: Mike Myslinski at 650-552-5324
HAYWARD – The Hayward teacher strike ended tonight after 10 days of soaring solidarity by educators as bargaining teams for the Hayward Education Association (HEA) and the Hayward Unified School District reached a tentative agreement on improving salaries.
The agreement was reached at 9:30 p.m. after talks resumed following a huge protest of teachers and parents at the 6:30 p.m. school board meeting tonight. Salaries were the only issue. The union is urging teachers to go to work Thursday for a minimum-day schedule with students. All teachers and students will resume classes.
Details of the tentative agreement are not being released by the union until the nearly 1,300 members of the Hayward Education Association have a chance to review them. A majority of the members of HEA must ratify the agreement. A ratification vote will take place starting at 2 p.m. Thursday at Sunset Adult Center, 22100 Princeton St., Hayward.
“After months of telling the district how the low pay for teachers is hurting our schools, the district finally agreed to do something about the problem,” said Kathleen Crummey, president of HEA. “This salary agreement isn’t perfect, but it acknowledges that Hayward teachers are underpaid. It will help retain and recruit more dedicated educators for our classrooms.
More than 500 Hayward teachers have left the district in the past three years due to low pay and morale.
The strike began on April 5, then continued during spring break, though teachers lost no pay for that week. The solidarity of teachers was remarkable, with nearly all educators on picket lines every day for a total of 10 school days.
In a statewide show of support for Hayward educators, teachers from the Bay Area and across California have donated more than $70,000 to a strike fund that provides hardship grants to Hayward educators who sacrificed pay during the job action. More background on the strike is at www.heaonline.org.
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