May 30 Slated for Teacher Strike if Accord Is Lacking

Los Angeles teachers will be asked to strike May 30 if their union and the district have not reached a contract agreement, United Teachers-Los Angeles President Wayne Johnson announced Sunday.

A walkout then, little more than two weeks before the close of the school year, could disrupt graduations, promotions and other end-of-year activities.

A strike authorization vote is scheduled April 19, Johnson said, adding that he expects “a very strong strike vote.”

After 14 months of negotiations with Los Angeles Unified School District officials, “it’s eyeball to eyeball now,” Johnson said in an interview before attending a meeting of several hundred union representatives at Hamilton High School in Beverlywood. “We’re going to see who blinks. I don’t think it’s going to be the teachers.”

Last month, teachers overwhelmingly rejected an offer from the district to raise salaries 20% over three years--8% the first year, 4% the next and 8% the third. At the same time, they granted union leaders permission to prepare for a strike.

The union wants a two-year contract with an 11% wage hike the first year and 10% the second, as well as broader authority for teachers in how their schools are run.

The last Los Angeles teacher strike, in 1970, lasted five weeks. During bitter contract negotiations two years ago, teachers voted 75% in favor of a strike, but reached a last-minute settlement after the state Legislature restored about $37 million in special aid to the district.

District spokeswoman Diana Munatones said school officials hope a strike can be averted this year as well.

“A lot can happen between now and May 29,” she said.

Meanwhile, Johnson said, teachers will withhold grades from the district for the 10-week period ending April 7. Teachers will be asked to give students and parents unofficial union report cards instead.

The district docked the pay of teachers who did not submit official grades earlier this year.

This round was prompted, Johnson said, by an informant who tipped union leaders that the district would use midterm grades to determine final credit for the year if teachers strike. Teachers who make those grades available will “actually sow the seeds of undercutting ourselves,” Johnson said.

Munatones denied that the district had such plans. “There has never been any discussion to that effect at all,” she said.

Last week, a state mediator recommended moving on to the last phase of bargaining necessary before a legal public employee strike can begin. Next week, the district and union expect to select a Public Employee Relations Board fact-finder to review district finances and issue non-binding contract recommendations.

“We go into fact-finding with a very cynical eye,” Johnson said, citing a history of fact-finders’ agreeing with the district’s position. He said the fact-finder’s report will be issued before the union’s deadline: “We’ll see to that.”