Teachers Will Continue Negotiations, but Union Warns of Strike : Education: Labor official describes walkout as an act of desperation, but says one may be called if agreement isn’t reached.

Calling a strike an “act of desperation,” the president of the Los Angeles teachers union said Tuesday that contract negotiations will continue with the Los Angeles Unified School District but that teachers will not accept a current offer that would slash their pay 12% below what they earned two years ago.

United Teachers-Los Angeles President Helen Bernstein said that a pay cut may be inevitable this year but that the union wants a commitment from the district that it will seek new ways to save and spend money to ensure that teachers will not face drastic pay reductions in the future.

“A pay cut of any kind is disastrous, but we’re as concerned about next year as this year,” Bernstein said at a news conference. “We’re asking for a commitment from (district officials that) things will be different so we don’t find ourselves in this situation (again) next year.”

Anything less could result in union members walking off the job, Bernstein said. The union, which has about 28,000 members, will vote next Tuesday and Wednesday on whether to accept the district’s offer or authorize the union leadership to call a strike if negotiations seem to be stalled. The union’s 300-member House of Representatives voted Monday night to recommend that members grant strike authorization.

“The board of directors will call a strike when every other means of negotiations has failed,” Bernstein said.

“A strike is an act of desperation. . . . But if these people push us out the door, that’s what we’ll do.”

District officials emphasized Tuesday that a strike would be detrimental and that there is no way to reduce the size of this year’s pay cuts. “There’s a certain amount of posturing going on,” board member Mark Slavkin said of the union leadership’s call for a strike vote. “I think we ought to focus on an agreement rather than on issuing threats and frightening parents and students who are already scared.”

Contract negotiations are expected to continue this week.

To eliminate a $400-million budget shortfall in June, district officials proposed employee pay cuts that would have the least effect on the lowest-paid workers and take the biggest reductions from the pay of top administrators.

Teachers and most administrators would suffer a 9% pay cut for this year in addition to a 3% cut imposed on the district’s 58,000 full-time employees last year--a 12% reduction below their earnings in 1990-91. Such a decrease would cut the income of a top-paid teacher earning $52,000 a year to about $43,000.

Employees earning less than $20,000 a year would receive no pay cut but would take some furloughed days. Workers earning $20,000 to $28,000 would receive a 6.5% reduction, while the 40 administrators earning more than $90,000 a year would receive an 11.5% cut.

The Board of Education voted Oct. 2 to impose those reductions, which would be in addition to last year’s 3% cuts. The reductions, which employees would take primarily through unpaid days off rather than base salary cuts, are scheduled to take effect in November, officials said.

Bernstein said union negotiators are willing to work with the district on a new offer that would incorporate steps to ensure that employee pay cuts are not imposed again next year. Union negotiators are proposing incentives and other measures that they say would maintain educational standards while saving the district money.

Among the options outlined by UTLA are seeking program funding from the sports and entertainment industries and efforts to increase student and employee attendance, with any savings going to restore employee salaries.

Sources close to negotiations said the proposals are good but that district officials are reluctant to pledge undetermined savings to salaries before the district’s financial state next year is known.

Other district officials agreed that several of the union’s proposals had potential in the long term. But they emphasized that the 9% pay cut for this year cannot be reduced and that a strike would do nothing to improve the situation.

“I don’t see how a strike could have any victory,” board member Jeff Horton said. “However, a number of (UTLA’s) proposals for saving money are very promising” and while not guaranteeing a pay raise, could help stave off cuts.

Slavkin agreed it was not too soon to look at money-saving measures for next year.

But he said the union’s calling for a strike vote is premature, adding that the board had only received UTLA’s proposals last Friday and has yet to discuss the recommendations.

The last time teachers struck was in 1989, disrupting instruction in the nation’s second-largest school system for nine days. The action resulted in teachers and most other workers getting a 24% raise over three years and also led to a policy to allow instructors and parents greater say in helping to run schools.

But those gains were eroded by diminishing district resources, and teachers found themselves getting pay reductions rather than raises.

Deputy Supt. Ruben Zacarias said the district would be prepared if a strike occurred. “We’re always prepared for an emergency, whether it be an earthquake or a job action,” he said. But, he added, “We hope these issues can be resolved because a strike is really a no-win situation and the ultimate losers are the kids.”

The district’s largest union represents about 34,000 teachers, librarians and other certificated support personnel within Los Angeles Unified.

The union launched a multifaceted campaign against the cuts after they were initially proposed, posting billboards throughout Los Angeles, staging a massive Labor Day protest and flooding the offices of legislators and local school board members with letters.

Teachers are also concerned about changes in health care coverage and a recent state waiver granting the district permission to shorten the school year by eight days.