Teacher Pay Talks Extend Into Evening as Strike Date Nears

The first session of salary negotiations in three months between the Los Angeles school district and the teachers union continued late into the evening Tuesday as representatives of both sides tried to reach an agreement before next Monday’s threatened strike.

The resumption of negotiations between the district and United Teachers-Los Angeles came three days after an impartial fact-finding panel authorized by the state issued a report that favored the school district’s position in the negotiations. State law requires the fact-finding process as the last step before a public employee union can legally strike.

When the talks broke down in February, UTLA was seeking a 14% salary increase for the entire school year for the district’s 32,000 teachers, while the school district’s best offer was for a 10% raise retroactive only to November--the equivalent of an 8% raise if calculated over the full school year.

The teachers are working under a three-year contract that expires in 1988 but allows renegotiations each year of salary and certain benefits. Because of the stalemate, the teachers have been working all year at 1985-86 pay rates, with the expectation that a raise eventually would be paid retroactively in a lump sum.