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Los Angeles moves one step closer to a teachers strike

Laura Greanias | October 12, 2018


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*Updated Oct. 12 with UTLA’s statement

Los Angeles moved one step closer to a strike Friday when mediation efforts ended and LA Unified filed an unfair labor practice charge against United Teachers Los Angeles for refusing to participate in good faith.

The two sides now move to a process called fact-finding. Each side has five days to select a representative to the fact-finding panel, then the state’s Public Employment Relations Board selects a chairperson. The three-person panel has 30 days to submit a non-binding report. The district will then be free to impose its last offer, and the union will be free to strike.

In a statement after Friday’s third mediation session, the district said UTLA sought to end mediation after the first session.

“By UTLA’s own admission, the only reason UTLA participated in mediation was to ensure that it could move quickly to a strike. UTLA has never negotiated in good faith.”

The district said UTLA’s demands would bankrupt LA Unified “and lead to the unprecedented layoffs of about 12,000 employees, including teachers.”

Here is the district’s question-and-answer fact sheet about the contract negotiations.

In its own statement, UTLA said it had made a good faith effort to reach an agreement, “but unfortunately LAUSD officials did not do the same, failing to offer any substantial proposals to reinvest in our schools.”

“The district thinks they can buy us off with a modest pay raise, but our fight has never been just about salary,” UTLA President Alex Caputo-Pearl said in the statement.

Here is UTLA’s “facts we do know about the district’s financial state.”

 

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