At an hour of the morning that many of us might find unfamiliar, United Teacher of Los Angeles (UTLA) President Warren Fletcher walks to the corner and waits for a city bus to take him downtown. As the unlikely leader of the Los Angeles teachers union for the past two years, Fletcher has changed the...

Fraud Allegations Swirl Around Firm Run by Two LA Candidates Two would-be candidates for the Los Angeles school board have accused a campaign consulting firm — run by two contenders for city office — of botching their efforts to get on the ballot. LA Times Contested UTLA Panel Elections Signal Internal Fissures Some union members...

There could be small signs of change going on inside UTLA. This week’s internal elections for the 350-member House of Representatives were contested in 22 of 32 districts for the first time in recent years.  Some of those seats were expected to have been won by a new caucus within UTLA, called NewTLA, which is...

A total of 356 teachers nominated themselves for seats on UTLA’s 350-member House of Representatives, triggering internal elections for UTLA policy-setting body that that have not been required in recent years due to low numbers. There will be elections held in 22 of the 32 electoral districts (see list of nominees in contested areas here). In...

Today’s deadline for LAUSD teachers to nominate themselves for UTLA’s House of Representatives raises two key questions: The immediate question is will there be enough nominees to require an actual election. In the last few cycles, the numbers have been so few that self-nomination was tantamount to election. The underlying question is whether the House of...

There’s a Friday deadline for teachers to nominate themselves to become part of the union’s House of Representatives, according to NewTLA, the progressive caucus within UTLA encouraging members to sign up for the job.  Though previous elections have often been uncontested, there are a number of standing committees, and in the past the HoR has even...

It was intriguing to see UTLA president Warren Fletcher sitting at the table with Jordan Henry, co-founder of NewTLA, at last night’s Los Angeles Education Partnership roundtable event titled “Do Unions Drive or Restrain Student Success?” A caucus of teachers frequently at odds with UTLA leadership, NewTLA is currently encouraging members to nominate themselves for union leadership positions at their schools....