4 Labor Groups Form Alliance to Counter L.A. Teachers Union : Schools: Organizations say UTLA is not taking its fair share of cuts as board prepares to make severe budget cuts. The friction has ruptured employee solidarity.

With the Los Angeles Unified School District facing its worst budget crisis, its largest union--United Teachers-Los Angeles--is coming under fire from other employee groups, who say the union is shirking its share of spending cuts at the expense of other workers.

The tensions have led to an unprecedented alliance among four district bargaining units to ensure that administrators, maintenance workers, classroom aides and clerical staff are treated equitably when the Los Angeles school board decides next week how to slash at least $400 million from next year’s budget.

The friction has spawned unusually open sniping over the last few weeks, with employee representatives trading barbs through the press, launching letter-writing campaigns, and even booing UTLA President Helen Bernstein during a recent board meeting.

The split illustrates the unease throughout the district as officials plunge even deeper into a budget-slashing cycle that over four years has reduced spending by more than $800 million and cut services, positions and employee salaries.

Several union representatives say they understand that pay cuts are inevitable and are willing to make sacrifices to preserve jobs and help the district survive its fiscal crisis. But UTLA, they charge, is unwilling to shoulder its fair share of the pending cuts.

“There is no way for any one group of employees in the district to escape the cuts this year,” said Connie Moreno of the California School Employees Assn.’s Local 500, which represents 5,000 district clerical and support employees. “And as long as UTLA maintains that they’re not going to be cut in any way, they are an obstacle.”

The newly formed Alliance for Education represents more than 30,000 district employees belonging to the Los Angeles County Building and Construction Trades Council, the California School Employees Assn., the Associated Administrators of Los Angeles and the Service Employees International Union Local 99.

Its representatives cite UTLA’s decision to oppose a 17-day furlough, as well as a recent UTLA proposal calling for a one-year 25% reduction in non-school-based classified personnel, as examples of the union’s unwillingness to share in the sacrifice.

District officials this month withdrew a request asking state permission to shorten the school year by 17 days--and possibly save the school system $160 million--after UTLA’s membership overwhelmingly rejected the proposal. Other employee groups, as well as parent organizations, had supported the plan as an alternative to layoffs. But UTLA’s rejection made the money-saving effort moot because the school calendar, as well as the 8.3% salary cut that would have resulted from the shorter year, are negotiable items.

UTLA officials said members believed that they should not be forced to take a pay cut until the district has cut administration and eliminated extraneous programs.

But what has drawn the most anger from the other unions has been the recently proposed UTLA plan to freeze most teacher hiring and impose a 25% one-year reduction in the number of non-school-based clerical and support personnel. The plan states that the reduction could be achieved through attrition and reassignment.

But members of Alliance for Education contend that there is an attrition rate of less than 5% among classified personnel and that a hiring freeze for teachers would not be enforced because there are shortages in critical areas.

“We’ve experienced the sharp end of the ax three years running,” said Pat McGinn, business representative for the Los Angeles County Building and Construction Trades Council, which represents the district’s skilled craftsmen. “We’re asking the (school) board for equity. We’re going to have to take some cuts but we’re not willing to take the biggest share.”

A district review of budget cuts over the last three fiscal years shows that clerical and other so-called classified employees as well as administrators with teaching credentials have taken pay and benefit cuts disproportionately greater than their share of the general operating funds for salaries. UTLA members have taken less, according to the review.

Classified employees took $90.2 million in salary and benefits cuts over the three years, which was $19 million more than it would have been if the reductions had been kept equal to their share of the general funds. On the other hand, teachers’ pay and benefits were slashed by $172.6 million, $37.7 million less than if the cuts were proportionate to their share of the same money pool.

Bernstein said in an interview Friday that UTLA is not calling for other employees to lose their jobs, nor is it advocating that they take a bigger pay cut than teachers.

“We haven’t said cut our pay less than anybody else’s. We’re not saying lay off people,” Bernstein said of the proposed reduction in classified employees. “We’re saying don’t fill any new vacant positions and we’re saying shift management to fill positions at schools.”

Bernstein said all employees contribute to the operation of the district. But “in a time of crisis you have to cut,” she said, adding that the classroom should be the last place to feel the budget ax.

“If you have broken windows, and you have to put wooden boards over them, you’re still going to have education in that room,” Bernstein said. “It’s going to look ugly. But you’ll have it. If you don’t have a teacher, it doesn’t matter if you (fix) all the windows, nothing is going to happen.”

Members of the alliance disagree, and say they have set aside nearly $100,000 in funds to ensure that the public is aware of their opposition to UTLA’s stance. They are also concerned that the Los Angeles school board hear their demands for equity.

All the union representatives, including Bernstein, said it was unfortunate that such friction has ruptured employee solidarity. Moreno said communication between UTLA and other classified union representatives has been nonexistent since March and that the tensions have spilled onto some campuses where teachers and classified employees are not speaking to one another.

“It’s destructive (and) shortsighted,” Bernstein said of the outcry against UTLA. Bernstein added that many UTLA battles have benefited other unions. “It’s a sad day when management is able to turn worker against worker and you lose sight of who the enemy is,” she said.