The strike by teachers in the West Contra Costa Unified School District (WCCUSD) in California has reached its fourth day, under conditions of intensifying pressure from the district, the Democrats and the union apparatus to shut it down. Negotiators from the United Teachers of Richmond (UTR) are entering another round of talks tonight.

The Teamsters 856 bureaucracy yesterday ordered 1,500 classified workers back to work and announced a tentative agreement that has not even been voted on. This sellout, almost identical to the deal workers already rejected, has effectively split the strike in half in order to weaken and isolate teachers.

The World Socialist Web Site calls for a resounding NO vote by classified workers, but a NO vote alone is not enough. The central question is how to place the conduct of this struggle into the hands of rank‑and‑file workers themselves. A rejection of the tentative agreement must be tied to demands for the reinstatement of the strike by classified workers, unification with teachers on the picket lines, and the formation of democratically elected rank‑and‑file committees in every school and worksite to take the struggle out of the hands of the union bureaucracy.

Conditions exist across California for a powerful, unified offensive, but this can only take place through an initiative by the rank and file. Multiple districts are already operating under expired contracts, while the California Teachers Association (CTA) peddles its “We Can’t Wait” public relations campaign to delay and divide educators rather than call a unified statewide strike action.

San Francisco teachers voted 99 percent to strike this week, with no date yet announced by the United Educators of San Francisco (UESF) bureaucracy. In Los Angeles and Berkeley, talks have reached formal impasse, with Berkeley facing a steep budget deficit. Other districts statewide confront cuts.

Every immediate demand raised by teachers and classified staff—substantial inflation‑beating raises, full staffing, no cuts, safe and well‑resourced schools—poses the broader question: who controls society’s resources, and in whose interests are they deployed? The working class cannot place any confidence in the Democratic Party or the union apparatus that ties them to the capitalist state. Only the independent political mobilization of the working class, nationally and internationally, can force a massive reallocation of wealth from billionaires and war spending to schools, healthcare and social services.

The World Socialist Web Site spoke with two educators in Northern California on the West Contra Costa teachers strike and the broader conditions facing public education. Karen is a striking English teacher in WCCUSD and Dan is a teacher in Berkeley who lives in WCCUSD (El Cerrito).

WSWS - What does it looks like to live on a WCCUSD teacher’s salary in the Bay Area right now? What do teacher’s lives look like?

KAREN - A lot of people take on extra duties, period sub or take extra students when there isn’t a substitute, teach an extra class or tutor for extra money. People who started their careers more recently for the most part don’t even bother dreaming of owning a home around here. That’s a joke. Even homes an hour or more away are too expensive. How can you possibly save the necessary hundreds of thousands of dollars for a down payment on our salaries?

WSWS - What do conditions look like in the classrooms? How do they compare to what would be necessary to give children the education they deserve? 

KAREN - My classes are 30-35 students. I have 10-plus special education students each year. I have no aides for any class periods all week. I have multiple English learners and no aides to support them. I have no aides for any classes at all. We have no district bus service except for a small number of special education students. We have no before or after school programs. Suspensions are heavily restricted and rare, but we have not established in-school suspension or other effective suspension alternative programs. Our internet goes out for hours several times a year. Our campus does not have enough adult supervision during lunch, before and after school, and passing periods because we are only allotted one security guard for every 300 students.

We have no COVID safety policies anymore. Students can come to school infected and contagious without a mask. They removed the air purifiers from our classrooms over the summer. Those of us who asked for them got them back, but we now have to pay for our own replacement filters. Educators and students deserve clean air.

WSWS - This is the first strike in the district’s history. What is the mood of the teachers? What has been the role of the union? Why did their “We Can’t Wait” campaign make teachers wait so long before striking?

KAREN - Most people I’ve talked to feel this should have happened a long time ago, and if it did, we wouldn’t have all the issues we do have. The teachers are motivated and in good spirits. With a few exceptions of scabs who crossed the picket lines, there is a widespread feeling this is absolutely necessary.

The union wanted to avoid this strike but couldn’t for several reasons. The district has been more intransigent than in the past. They want to privatize everything they can out to contractors and non-profits instead of unionized district employees. The Teamsters members voted down their sellout tentative agreement. That left UTR leaders with no choice but to go down this road.

“We Can’t Wait” is just a name. There has been no coordination to have multiple teachers unions striking together to maximize leverage. There has been no mention of striking for more funding from the state, to shut down charter schools, to end the genocide in Gaza which has killed thousands of students and teachers, or to address poverty and inequality (especially through the passage of CalCare).

WSWS - Educators across the Bay Area are moving into struggle, including in SFUSD and Berkeley Unified, yet the unions keep these struggles isolated and staggered in time. Do you support our call for workers to form rank-and-file committees, independent of the unions, to unify these struggles and fight for what workers and students need, rather than what the districts and Democrats say they can afford?

KAREN - Yes. We have more leverage when we work together. We need to place the proper demands on the state and union leaders who routinely sell us out by applying the leverage inherent in denying the use of our labor through strike action.

DAN (interjecting) - Yes! As I see it, there’s a growing awareness that we need a whole new paradigm for contract campaigns. This afternoon there was a meeting of Berkeley teachers and staff from high, middle and elementary schools. Around 25 people. Pretty much everyone who spoke suggested that we need to address the state directly. We also started making a list of student- and family-centered issues (e.g., healthcare) we want to work towards. So a whole new paradigm for the union.

WSWS - What has been the response among students and teachers to ICE raids across the country? The district has a large immigrant population.

DAN - A lot of teachers are concerned. Some have participated in non-violent training for confrontations with ICE, some have gone to protests. In Berkeley, a classified worker was kidnapped by ICE, and people are doing fundraising for their family. However, two other urgent issues are sharing time: investigation of BUSD for supposed antisemitism, and the contract campaign. I’ve subbed several times, and attendance seems a bit down. I was told by a VP that it is in fact lower.

WSWS - How has the ongoing destruction of the Department of Education affected your work? What do you think will be the long-term implications?

KAREN - I have no faith the Democrats will do much if they ever regain power to restore what’s been lost, let alone build upon what we used to have to make things better. We need a strong Department of Education to help fund programs like special education, which they’ve never done fully. We need a strong grassroots movement of educators nationwide to place demands at all levels of government for school funding and alleviating poverty and inequality. These sorts of demands need to be part of any strike.

DAN - Not yet. Not sure what to expect. Supposedly direct funding of schools will not be affected, but I’m sure that what happened with universities will happen to us: accusations of antisemitism will be an excuse to cut funding for particular districts, maybe starting with Berkeley!

WSWS - Governments across the world, led by the Trump administration in the US, are rearming to the teeth in preparation for major new wars, including a potentially imminent invasion of Venezuela. Do you agree that we must build toward a general strike to stop these wars and give our children the future they deserve?

KAREN - We need a general strike to fight the oligarchs here and imperialism abroad. This includes fighting for no war on Venezuela, stopping the genocide in Gaza and getting equal rights for Palestinians. This will not happen with the corrupt trade union apparatus. Rank-and-file members need to take independent action which forces the leadership to follow our lead, as what happened with the Red for Ed strike wave.

DAN - There’s talk of a general strike on May Day of 2028, of course, which is comically long from now. I really haven’t given it enough thought yet. Maybe there should be CA sickouts for CalCare first? Education funding? I don’t know. But I don’t think that I could work on a day in which the US is invading Venezuela or another country.