Teachers in Tustin Pledge to Continue Strike Indefinitely

Visibly angry Tustin teachers voted late Wednesday afternoon to continue their strike indefinitely, despite their union leadership’s recommendation to return to class.

The strike, the first in the 113-year history of the Tustin Unified School District, began Wednesday morning after more than a year of futile efforts by the district to negotiate a teacher contract.

Union leaders, including Tustin Educators Assn. President Sandy Banis, recommended at a mass meeting Wednesday afternoon in Tustin’s Peppertree Park that teachers return to their schools today. The 150 teachers at the meeting, however, voted overwhelmingly, by a show of hands, to continue the strike.

“We’re continuing this strike indefinitely until you tell me otherwise,” Banis told the teachers after the vote.

Meanwhile, school district officials said the strike caused no serious problems Wednesday and had little impact on the schools. The district said 61% of the 397 regular classroom teachers were out Wednesday but substitutes were used so that all classes were staffed.

The union said a slightly higher percentage--66% of the teachers--stayed out Wednesday. But Banis said regardless of the percentage: “This has been a great day; we’ve all been united.”

Nonetheless, Ed Romeo, a California Teachers Assn. staff consultant, told the afternoon rally that “we need to contact more teachers and persuade them not to go back to the classroom.”

Schools Supt. Maurice Ross said he believes that the 61% of teachers who stayed out reflects the union membership in the district, adding: “Only about 60% of our teachers belong to the union.”

Pupil attendance was about normal throughout the district, Ross said.

Striking teachers will lose an average of $200 a day in pay, Ross said. Substitute teachers are receiving $180 a day.

Ross characterized the teachers’ decision to continue the strike as “unfortunate.” But he said that all schools will remain open, regardless of how long the strike lasts.

Dorothy Ralston, president of the Tustin school board, said the strike will not change the board’s stand on a “final offer” made last week to the teachers. “Strike or no strike, that is the offer,” she said.

Banis and other teachers, however, predicted that community pressure from the strike will force the board to reconsider and go back to the negotiating table.

Banis and several other teachers at the afternoon rally disputed Ross’ claim that the schools were functioning normally. “In some schools, they (the administrators) are using two people to replace a single teacher,” Banis said. She also contended that little instruction was going on in the classes.

The strike centers on lack of a formal contract for the teachers since June, 1984. Contract talks have snagged on the teachers’ requests for a cost-of-living pay raise retroactive to last year.

Other issues include the teachers’ plea for “agency fees,” a variation of mandatory union membership. Under agency fees, a district requires all teachers, whether they choose to join a union or not, to pay their fair share for being represented by the union.

Ross contends that agency fees are the major reason for the strike. “The state union (California Teachers Assn.) wants this very badly because it’s gotten agency fees now from all the districts around us,” Ross said. “But this is a conservative community, and my (school) board is unanimously opposed to mandatory union membership.,”

Criticizes Ross Comments

Bill Ribblett, a California Teachers Assn. staff consultant assisting the Tustin teachers, scoffed at Ross’ comments. “We’ve already told Dr. Ross that the agency fee could come off the table if he got serious about a pay raise,” Ribblett said. “Let him produce a serious pay proposal and watch how fast that issue (agency fees) remains on the table.”

Ross, however, reiterated on Wednesday that the school board will not add to its “final offer” made to the teachers last week. That offer was for a 1985-86 contract that would give the teachers an 8.1% pay raise and a 1986-87 school year pay raise that would be “not less than 4%.”

The teachers overwhelmingly voted down that offer Monday. Banis said the main reason for the rejection was because the board’s offer “ignored 1984-85.” She also said that teachers were angered by Ross’ and the school board’s statement that the offer was “final.”

Many teachers interviewed as they picketed in front of their schools Wednesday said the “final offer” was the item that most angered them.

“The one thing that tossed me over the line was the district’s refusal to budge on that ‘final offer,’ ” said Grace Riggs, a teacher who picketed at Estock Elementary. “I went to one of their negotiating sessions last week, and I could see for myself that they (the district bargaining agents) weren’t really going to negotiate. I wish the school board members would have been there to have seen it themselves.”

John Sorenson, an English teacher at Tustin High School, paused on the picket line to give this assessment: “The district offered us an 8.2% raise for this year but said to forget last year. It doesn’t seem reasonable. Most of us have just had it with a superintendent who is very vindictive.”

Ray Taylor, another Tustin High English teacher on the picket line, added: “We are demonstrating against Rossism. We’re upset about last year. This strike is about last year. The (school board’s) take-it-or-leave-it attitude is archaic.”

After early morning picketing at the 14 schools in the district, teachers marched through downtown Tustin at about 11 a.m. and then picketed the district administration building. Their afternoon rally in Peppertree Park was to hear their leadership’s recommendations and vote on whether to continue the strike.

Banis said the union leadership suggested temporarily ending the strike after one day. She told the teachers that the strike would be resumed as necessary. But she was greeted with some calls of “no” and a shaking of heads.

“You don’t like what I say?” she asked the crowd. “Right!” the teachers roared back. The teachers subsequently voted, many of them with raised fists, to continue the strike. Banis said she would abide by their wishes and would not end the strike unless teachers call for another vote to do so. Another teachers’ meeting will be held at 12:30 p.m. today at Peppertree Park.

Attendance on First Day of Strike

Teachers Students on staff absent enrolled absent abs. norm Elementary Arroyo 18 12 509 13 6-20 Estock 22 13 608 39 20-30 Heideman 13 8 406 20 18-25 Loma Vista 22 7 542 18 n/a Nelson 25 19 708 37 25-35 Thorman 26 19 740 26 20-35 Memorial 18 8 n/a 24 20-28 Veeh 18 5 437 18 15-25 Columbus Tustin 19 15 476 57 24-35 Currie 20 16 478 25 20-30 Hewes 22 15 550 31 31 Secondary Foothill 68 50 1798 180 135-150 Tustin 82 53 2110 143 n/a Hillview 10 9 230 n/a n/a Specialists* 14 1 Total Teachers 397 250 (61%)

*specialists are not assigned to any particular school