Tustin Teachers Given ‘Final Offer’

Contract negotiations between a teachers’ union and the Tustin Unified School District took a turn for the worse Thursday, increasing the possibility of a strike next week.

District negotiators made what they said was their final offer during a morning meeting and then, a union official said, refused to participate in any further talks until after Wednesday, the day when teachers have voted to walk out if an agreement has not been reached.

“They presented this as their last and final offer,” said Sandy Banis, president of the Tustin Educators Assn. “They said they will not meet with us until after Oct. 2. We asked them if we could get back to them by 2 p.m. this afternoon with a counteroffer and they said: ‘No way.’ They refused to let us respond.”

District Supt. Maurice Ross said: “I think the teachers will buy it if they are given a chance to vote on it. It’s our final offer. If they want to strike, then they’ll go ahead and strike. But we’re ready for a strike.”

Teachers Get Contract Details

Banis also claimed that the district had tried to undermine the union by making details of the contract offer available to the teachers before their negotiating team had seen it.

“They had the proposal out to our people before we even saw it,” she said. “It was put in their boxes this morning. They knew what it was before we even had a chance to respond or react.”

The district’s 424 teachers have been working without a contract since June, 1984. Banis said that a key issue in the ongoing dispute has been the union’s request for increased pay to cover the longer hours and longer school year teachers must work as mandated by the state Legislature in 1983.

“This has been dealt with by the other districts in the county, but they (the Tustin district trustees) have refused to talk about it,” Banis said. “To their view, 1984-85 didn’t even exist.”

Ross said Thursday’s offer by the district was for an 8.2% salary increase for the 1985-86 school year and “not less than” 4% in 1986-87. The annual average salary of teachers in the district is $20,500. Ross said the district would use 40% of the funds it receives from the new state lottery to decrease class size.

Ross said the district would not participate in further negotiations because “we’ve met for 30 hours and we don’t see any need to continue.”

“We’re really not anxious to spend anymore time at the table with them, and I think it’s time for the rank and file to speak,” he said.

Ross also denied there had been an effort to undermine the union’s negotiators by distributing copies of the offer to the teachers.

“It was distributed to the teachers, but not until it had been discussed by the negotiators,” he said. “I didn’t editorialize. I just told them what the offer was.”

Banis said that if the district refuses to negotiate any further, “then they don’t leave us any alternative. Our people are working very hard to get ready, but they’ll be on the alert this weekend because we’re hoping Dr. Ross will realize that the irresponsible tack he is taking is not going to do anyone any good, particularly the students.

“This will force the teachers to go out into the community with their case on Oct. 2 and that will be Day One of an ongoing strike.”