Teachers Vote to End Strike--Friday Return Expected : Pact Settles Nine-Day Walkout

Striking Los Angeles teachers approved a three-year contract at the Sports Arena this afternoon, paving the way for classrooms to return to normal after a wrenching nine-day strike.

In a voice vote, a majority of roughly 12,000 teachers at the session shouted that they favored the contract. Union Vice President Frances Haywood then declared: “The contract has been accepted.” A written ballot, considered a formality, is to be taken later today.

Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Unified School District board was meeting in a closed session and was expected to decide to accept the pact as well. If that happens, the teachers are likely to return to classes Friday.

Under a compromise agreement announced early today by union and district officials, teachers will receive a 24% pay hike over three years. Teachers in Los Angeles, the nation’s second-largest school district, currently earn salaries ranging from $23,440 to $43,319 a year.

The pact also called for teachers to receive half of the pay they were docked for refusing to hand in grade reports before the strike. The rest can be earned back through extra work.

Before the ratification vote this morning, the union’s board of directors had decided to make no recommendation on the proposed settlement to the full union membership.

Teacher Dale Johnson, a member of the roughly 50-member board said, “We took a ‘no position’ because we have faith in the ability of our membership to make the ultimate decision. They’re the ones who carried the strike. They’re the ones responsible for the decision.”

UTLA President Wayne Johnson said directors took the neutral stance because many teachers are “furious” about the district’s refusal to restore all of the docked pay. “The docked pay is the fly in the ointment,” he said.

District officials had fought to dock the teachers to set a precedent in case of future job actions.

The agreement also calls for the elimination of mandatory playground supervision by elementary school teachers and the creation of shared-decision-making councils at schools, two issues that also had divided the union and district during the strike.

The bitter strike has crippled classroom instruction in the huge district, with two-thirds of the regular teachers walking picket lines and about half of the students also staying out of school.