Teachers’ Strike Notebook : When Union Chief Dreams, It’s About Pickets

Wayne Johnson went to bed about 12:30 a.m. Wednesday and dreamed about picket lines. It was a pleasant dream, he said, definitely not a nightmare.

Five hours later, the president of United Teachers-Los Angeles was awake in his Westwood condominium and choosing his clothes with an eye for what would look good on television. At 7:15 a.m., he was on a real picket line at the start of the third day of the momentous strike he is leading.

“When you realize the enormity of this and the potential impact, it can make you nervous,” he said, carrying a sign and walking in a circle with about 30 teachers at Union Avenue Elementary School near MacArthur Park. “But I am so convinced that what we’re doing is right and what we’re fighting for is right.”

In a rented white Chrysler New Yorker driven by a bodyguard, Johnson went on to address a rally of about 400 enthusiastic teachers in Griffith Park and then back to his office for paper work, telephone calls, a sandwich at his desk, staff meetings and a press conference. He was scheduled to meet with a group of Westside parents later Wednesday night.

Johnson said the small-town Missouri boy he once was is still alive in him and he is amazed to be at the center of the storm. “Growing up in the Midwest, you tend to have a smaller view of things,” he said. “Now I suddenly realize the whole nation is watching this.”

At 7:30 a.m. Wednesday, Leonard Britton, the Los Angeles school district superintendent, had been at his desk for half an hour. He had just denied a reporter’s request to spend the day with him, even after being told that union chief Wayne Johnson had agreed to a similar request. “I don’t gear my life around what he wants,” the superintendent said.

Then Britton was off, striding through a maze of inner offices to reach the strike “command center” at the district’s downtown headquarters. The mood in the inner sanctum seemed unusually calm. A school district police scanner barked out reports of incidents on the picket lines.

Back in his own office, Britton talked to a handful of top aides. In the outer office, the phone lines rang nonstop with calls from parents wanting to speak to the superintendent. “I’m sorry, but he’s not available,” “I’ll be sure he gets the message,” “I’ll be sure to let him know,” two harried secretaries repeat over and over.

By 10:50 a.m., Britton had his coat on and was carrying a thick binder labeled “CLOSED SESSION.” In a few moments, he was in his district car--a late model Oldsmobile, blue--for a five-minute ride to a strike negotiator’s office. The car passed a group of strikers who waved at Britton. Britton did not look up.

“This is Wednesday,” he said to no one in particular. Asked if it was a good day, he replied: “All I know is that it’s Day 3.”

If the two sides in the school strike cannot hammer out an agreement at the bargaining table, the teachers union is evidently prepared to serenade the school board into submission.

United Teachers-Los Angeles union leaders have distributed song books to picketers containing revised words to 14 time-honored tunes, including Bob Dylan’s “Blowin’ in the Wind” and Julia Ward Howe’s “Battle Hymn of the Republic.”

Sample lyrics:

Mine eyes have seen the writing on the walls of 4-5-0

The board is deep in hiding, while their only word is NO

The parents are divided are the kids to stay or go

While we go marching on.

The Legislature’s unconcerned, the school board is inept

The governor don’t give a damn, as long as he is kept

I looked at our poor children with the fat cats, how I wept

And we go marching on.

Entrepreneurship 101?

Two North Hollywood High School seniors who favor higher salaries for teachers have seized the moment to make a few bucks for themselves.

The enterprising pair of 17-year-olds are hawking T-shirts they’ve designed themselves featuring a photo of district Supt. Leonard Britton bisected with a red slash.

“We ditched to IHOP (International House of Pancakes) because we weren’t learning anything, we just got herded into the auditorium,” Edward Laskaris explained. “So we went to breakfast and thought, hey, we could make some money on this.”

Laskaris and partner Michele Cobin have had 71 of the T-shirts printed up, which they are pitching for $8 each.

“I invested about $500,” said Laskaris, “and I hope to make a profit of about $150. I was up until midnight doing the iron-ons.”

At last report, it was unclear whether the two had come up with a winner.

Elsewhere on the strike circuit, students are reported to be spending money rather than making it, often at a rate of a quarter per play.

Video arcade managers around town say that business is definitely on the upswing, particularly during the normally sleepy morning hours.

Most popular among the truants are such newly marketed diversions as “Hard Drivin,’ ” a motoring simulation game, and “Street Fighter,” in which a karate expert fights his way around the world, reports Tony Arguelles of Westworld Amusement Center in Marina del Rey. While many of the newer games have topical themes, no word yet from Nintendo on whether a hastily created “Strikebreaker” or “Scab Patrol” game is on its way to the malls.