“Community” was the word of the day as Oakland educators headed back to the picket lines for the fourth day of their strike for safe, stable, and racially just community schools.

The morning’s rally at Melrose Leadership Academy, featured community voices joining in the chorus calling on OUSD to include Common Good proposals in their bargaining.

A growing list of California districts have bargained Common Good demands with teacher unions, including: Los Angeles Unified, Natomas Unified, Montebello Unified, San Diego Unified, West Contra Costa Unified, and Jurupa Unified.

After the morning’s press conference, strikers headed out for four megapickets across Oakland, where their picket signs were greeted with the sweet sounds of cars honking in solidarity.

“I feel that ever since we’ve been striking, now OUSD is listening and we’re starting to bargain and make a lot of progress. We still have a long way to go, but I feel the energy is good right now. We have to keep striking until we get a real proposal,” said Zion Ramon, who teaches at Hoover Elementary.

But that wasn’t the only music uplifting striking educators. Rage Against the Machine frontman, son of an educator, and proud unionist Tom Morello took to social media to express his solidarity with Oakland educators.

As of this writing, the district and OEA are currently in bargaining. OEA is encouraging the school board to meet to take action on critical issues in the community and direct OUSD administrators to negotiate a settlement to keep educators in Oakland and support our students and community with Common Good demands.