Amateur Video: A Voice of Teachers' Protest

Last week, teachers of the Hayward Unified walked out of the job for two days, April 5 and 6. Teachers from 38 Hayward schools joined the protest about their salary. The teachers are asking for an 8.08 percent raise, retroactive to the beginning of the school year. Teachers working under a three-year-contract ending in June 2008 are demanding a 16.12 increase over the two years.

The district is offering 7% starting on May 1. If savings are realized, another 1.6% would be given in July. The teachers have received only less than a 1% raise last year.

The teachers in this district are receiving a high salary; an average of $65,300. But to be able to get this amount, they have agreed to pay for their own health insurance. Other East Bay school districts are doing the same scheme. The teachers are now complaining that the cost of health insurance are rising fast than their salaries. The superintendent claims that the increase that the teachers are asking for would cause the district to go into bankruptcy.

Negotiations were done to solve this problem but the mediators and arbitrators failed to make the two sides agree to a compromise. Because of the strike, substitute teachers were hired so as not to disrupt classes.

Amidst all of this, an amateur videographer started to get some videos. Robert McCarthy, himself a teacher, has been into videography but is doing it for a hobby. Little did he know that the videos he took of the Hayward teachers protests would actually be viewed by thousands of people on the Internet. Now it has become the venue for the striking teachers to air their story, and for the people within and outside their community to hear their sentiments and concerns.

For his own students, McCarthy said that he would use instructional videos to keep his students interested in the lessons. In the video about the teachers, he used the same method that he has been using in class, so as to keep the viewers' attention: fast-paced. He likened himself and his style to Muhammad Ali. he said that the footages keep coming from left, right, then left and right. He has been gathering interviews and actions scenes. His fast-paced editing technique displayed a back and forth display of different footages from the various interviews and many actions scenes he has been collecting.

He uploaded his video to youtube.com, a very popular free video sharing website. The video series is now called "Channel 16.84, The Truth". The numbers 16.84 represent the wage increase percentage given to two assistant superintendents last year that the teachers have also demanded.To date, the video has reached more than 3,500 views and is creating quite a noise. He is elated that he is contributing to the fight of the teachers. He intends to continue covering the teacher's strike and actions, with the help of two other teachers.

Some students were seen supporting the teachers. Others were unclear to what was happening. It is still Spring break for this students this week, but once they come back, they should be getting ready for the state exams. The superintendent is hopeful that the testing will not be affected. But he is afraid that if it does, there would be a significant impact on the district.

The teachers seem adamant about their demands. They said they would just stop their strike once they are given an offer they could not refuse. McCarthy and his group vow that they would continue in creating the videos that chronicle the story of the teachers so they could motivate and empower other teachers to go on fighting until they receive what they truly deserve.

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