District Seeks Labor Charge Over Walkout : Camarillo: Officials want a court order to prevent another job action by teachers, most of whom were back at work Friday.

Camarillo’s Pleasant Valley Elementary School District has filed an unfair labor practice complaint against teachers who walked off their jobs Thursday and intends to get a restraining order to keep teachers from walking out again, officials said Friday.

The 6,500-student district filed the labor complaint late Thursday after two-thirds of its teachers walked off their jobs for the day, violating the district’s contract with the teachers’ union, Supt. Shirley F. Carpenter said.

The state Public Employment Relations Board will consider the complaint if a preliminary review by a board attorney shows that it has merit, officials said. A fine could be imposed on the union.

Bill Gordon, a negotiator for the teachers, denied that the walkout was a violation of the contract.

“Our position is the contract really does not exist because the section in the contract relating to fringe benefits and wages has expired,” Gordon said. “We don’t feel there’s a full and valid contract.”

Most of the district’s 285 teachers were back in class Friday, and Gordon said no more walkouts are planned because the boycott finally got the attention of district administrators.

Pleasant Valley teachers make from $22,440 a year to $40,255, less than teachers in most other Ventura County elementary districts. The wage provisions of the teachers’ contract expired last fall. Teachers are seeking an 8.5% increase and the district has offered 5.9%.

More than 200 teachers walked out of classrooms Thursday morning and converged on the school district office with picket signs to protest a stalemate in the negotiations.

Despite assurances that the walkout was a one-day event, Carpenter said the district will probably seek a restraining order “because we have no idea whether they’re planning to do this again.”

The district’s complaint charges that teachers not only violated a no-strike clause in their contract but breached a separate requirement that no walkouts be conducted during contract negotiations, said Reginald Murphy, attorney for the district.

Salary negotiations reached an impasse in December. A state mediator has been involved ever since, but no meetings have been held since mid-March.

Carpenter said problems with teachers started in January, when some refused to participate in weekly staff meetings. And some would not take part in a teacher-training day in February, she said.

“Since Jan. 7 the union leadership has encouraged withholding of services to our children,” Carpenter said. “It’s just continuing to build. They’re becoming more bold and yesterday’s action was the last straw.”

Carpenter charged that many teachers have refused to participate in a number of other activities, both inside and outside the classroom.

Some teachers go to Monday staff meetings “and just sit there,” Carpenter said. Teachers are obligated to take part in the meetings under their contract, she said.

Special education teacher Roger Lininger, president-elect for the local chapter of the California Teachers Assn., said the walkout was necessary to bring attention to teachers’ demands for better salaries and benefits.

“We hope yesterday got the message out,” he said.

Gordon of the teachers’ union said he has advised teachers to “work to rule,” or to do only as stipulated in the contract, until a new agreement is reached.

Gordon said the teachers have filed a number of unfair labor complaints against the district stemming from the negotiations. One complaint charges that some teachers were harassed by school officials for taking down bulletin board decorations that they paid for themselves, he said.

Like most districts in the state, Pleasant Valley is “dependent on volunteerism by teachers, which amounts to subsidization of their programs,” Gordon said. “What we said is that if the board does not have that much regard for us, we’re going to strictly do exactly what the contract says, and not one lick more.”

The district’s three-year contract with teachers does not expire until December, but salary and benefit sections expired last year.

Teachers are demanding an 8.5% salary increase and full medical benefits. The district offered 5.9% in March that would be retroactive to July 1, 1990. Medical coverage under the district’s offer would increase from $3,900 a year to $4,430, which would cover 100% of one medical plan but only part of a second.