School Chief Calls Union Tactic Unfair

Los Angeles school district Supt. Sid Thompson said Friday that a teachers union tactic to create confusion in the district’s substitute hiring plan during a strike is “not morally correct” and he will send off a counter letter to retirees urging them not to participate.

United Teachers-Los Angeles leaders wrote to 200 to 300 retired teachers last week, urging them to sign up to be substitutes but to decline to work in the event of a strike “to create all sorts of confusion in the district.”

Thompson said the move will hurt students and serves to undermine the important mediation process under way with Democratic Assembly Speaker Willie Brown to settle a contentious contract dispute.

Thompson said the letter is another example of the union’s drive to discredit the district and fuel teacher anger. “In the long haul, if this district is going to improve, this type of business has got to change,” he said.

In his letter to the retirees, Thompson said he will tell them that it is unprofessional and unfair to children to “pretend to do one thing, but really intend to do another.”

Union President Helen Bernstein defended the letter, saying it is part of the overall strike planning the union is undertaking to organize for the walkout, which could start Feb. 23. Plans include training union leaders at each school about how to run picket lines, handle emergency situations and organize telephone calling trees to pass along information.

“If we strike, my entire goal will be to make it as short as possible,” Bernstein said. “And the best way to do that is to create a situation where they have to have us come back in.”

Bernstein said she and Marion Girard, president of the union’s retired teacher branch, sent the letter in response to inquiries from retirees asking how they could lend support. She said retirees are angry with district cost-cutting measures that have changed their medical benefits.

Although Thompson said the district is not intensely preparing for a strike, emergency manuals and instructions have been sent to principals and substitutes are being recruited.

“Why is it not OK for me to prepare for a strike, but OK for him to?” Bernstein asked. “But let’s hope all this strike preparation time will be wasted hours.”