Strike Planned at Anaheim Schools Over Pay Dispute

Teachers in the Anaheim Union High School District voted overwhelmingly to stage a 1-day strike next week on Teacher Appreciation Day to protest the district’s latest salary offer in a 9-month contract dispute. It would be the second labor walkout in the district’s history.

Friday’s vote of 82.4% in favor of the May 10 protest came a week after salary negotiations collapsed between union and district officials, said Leonard Lahtinen, president of the Anaheim Secondary Teachers Assn.

“We’re very encouraged by the support of our members,” Lahtinen said Friday night. “It was a surprise to me that the vote was so overwhelming. I hope that conveys a message to our district: Our teachers have had it.”

School district officials could not be reached for comment late Friday, but they have said that the district’s schools will remain open if the teachers strike.a

However, Anaheim Union trustees have called an emergency meeting today to discuss the impending walkout and emergency procedures to be observed during the job action. The agenda for the special meeting also calls for resolutions on the subject of “unauthorized leave” and “leaves of absence.”

For several months, Anaheim teachers have engaged in informational picketing at various schools throughout the district, which includes high schools and junior highs for most of Anaheim, as well as for La Palma and Cypress.

Lahtinen said the balloting, which took place at the United Food and Commercial Workers auditorium in Buena Park, began at 4:45 p.m. and concluded at 7 p.m. Of the 600 votes cast, 487 favored a walkout and 104 opposed it. He said nine votes cast were invalidated because ballots had not been properly marked.

Lahtinen added that teachers chose Teachers Appreciation Day for their protest because “we feel we are in a district where teachers are not appreciated. We are withholding services for that day to show the public we are not appreciated.”

Officials of the financially troubled district, which ran a $4.8-million deficit in the 1987-88 school year, say declining enrollment has left no money to grant the pay increase the teachers are demanding.

The district’s enrollment, which determines funding from the state, has dropped from 37,500 to 20,000 students in the last 15 years. The continuing decline is expected to result in a $1.5-million deficit for the 1989-90 school year.

The district’s last salary offer would hold teacher salaries in the next school year to the same proportion of the total budget as this year, after a reserve fund of 2.5% is set aside. Any money left over after that would be used for a salary increase of up to 5%.

The following year, salary increases would be granted after a 3% reserve fund was set aside, with a maximum raise of 8%.

Teachers oppose that offer because there is no guarantee there will be money left after the reserve fund is set aside, which Lahtinen said could result in no salary increase for 2 consecutive years.

Instead, the teachers want a guaranteed 3.2% salary increase for this year, plus 41% of what is left after the 2.5% reserve is set aside.

The contract between the district and its 900 teachers expired in August, and talks officially reached an impasse in January, Lahtinen said. A state mediator has so far been unable to resolve the dispute.