Teachers Divided on New Contract Offer : Education: Some at UTLA meeting say 10% pay cut is ‘outrageous,’ but others find proposal by Speaker Brown to be an ‘acceptable package.’

They stood to applaud. They hissed and booed. Several rudely heckled. A few times, some cheered.

But in the end, virtually none of the 700 or so Los Angeles teachers who gathered Sunday to hear the full details of a proposed contract offer walked away smiling.

A Tuesday strike was postponed over the weekend, but to avert a walkout in the nation’s second-largest school district, a majority of union teachers, nurses and counselors who cast a vote must agree to a 10% pay cut.

This new proposal does not have the written guarantee they want that salaries will not be cut again. But it does have a long list of provisions designed to increase teachers’ power on campus and restore respect to a profession that they believe has been derailed by an insensitive school administration.

Teachers throughout the giant Los Angeles Unified School District will vote this week on whether to accept the latest proposal, drafted by Assembly Speaker Willie Brown, or go on strike March 1.

It is the third strike-related vote in four tumultuous months for their labor union. The results will be announced Friday.

By most accounts, including the voices of union leaders gathered Sunday, it will be an agonizing decision. The leaders are predicting that the offer will be accepted. But even that is a close call.

“I’m going to vote against it. This is outrageous,” said Gary Schneider, who teaches at Cheviot Hills Continuation High School. “I can’t live with that kind of wage decrease. This is primarily about wages.”

But his friend and colleague Frank J. Olivadoti is voting yes.

“I’m not happy, but this is an acceptable package,” he said. “I’m looking at this as stress reduction. This needs to stop. I want to concentrate on working with my kids.”

United Teachers-Los Angeles President Helen Bernstein predicted that about 20% of the rank and file are “hard-core” unionists who will vote to strike. Another 20% never intended to strike. “The vote is with the 60% in the middle,” she said. “I feel a clear majority of that 60% will accept the offer.”

The offer, announced Saturday by Brown, scaled back the pay cut from 12% to 10%. His proposal calls for the cash-strapped district to use its $31-million emergency reserve to pay the salaries, and he says he believes that the district can replace the reserve with unused funds from other accounts if necessary.

Union leaders and Brown spoke Sunday to union representatives from each school, who crowded into the Hamilton High School Auditorium, standing against the walls and sitting in aisles.

Bernstein told teachers that if they reject the Brown proposal, and go on strike, union and district negotiators will start the bargaining essentially from scratch, using the district’s last offer as the starting point. That offer included only four sentences--one of them the 12% pay cut.

“What you have to weigh is: If you go on strike, will it get better?” she said. “I’m not sure a strike can deliver on anything. . . . You must carefully weigh the choices. Don’t take this lightly.”

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When Bernstein stood to accept a bouquet of flowers from a schoolboy, the divisions of opinion erupted. A majority of teachers gave her a standing ovation. While the applause resounded, the opposition’s chanting erupted:

“Strike! Strike! Strike!”

As she began to talk, someone shouted “10 percent stinks!” She retorted: “You’re right.” She added that she is making good on her promise to bring to a vote of the membership a new offer that she believes will be a turning point leading to school district restructuring.

Brown spoke last, and was heckled by a small faction of teachers.

“Would you take a 10% cut?” one man shouted.

“Free speech says I’ve got the mike. You shut up,” Brown said, raising his voice as most of the crowd applauded. And as teachers are prone to do, many of them repeatedly shushed those interrupting Brown’s talk and told them to pay attention.

The loudest applause and cheers came when Brown described his plan to change the way the district handles controversial “me-too” agreements with other labor unions. Such agreements this year prohibit the district from giving a better contract deal to teachers without giving it to other employees. Brown’s proposal delivers a 10% bonus to teachers if the district renews the me-too agreements.

For teachers, the me-too agreement has become a symbol of what they believe is the district’s intent to divide labor unions and hurt teachers.

Michele Papietro, a 74th Street Elementary School teacher, was at first unsure of how she would vote.

“I’m not sure whether this is a sellout or not. I’ll probably vote to reject it.”

But she left Sunday’s meeting saying that she will mark “yes” on her ballot.

“It was a hard sell, but there are a lot of good parts,” she said. “I think I and most people can live with it. . . . I love that me-too clause” in the new proposal.

Another teacher said she has confidence in Brown, who pledged that even though his proposed contract ties teachers’ pay to the state budget, he will personally guarantee that their salaries will not be cut further next year.

“I have a lot of faith in Willie Brown,” said Miriam Hooper of Figueroa Street Elementary School. “I know teachers will be grateful to vote for no strike. I’m hopeful this will be it. . . . I feel relieved.”

Teacher Lenore Ellis of Germain Street Elementary School said she will accept the offer because “I think they have gone as far as they can. . . . No one wants their money cut, but we have made other inroads.”

She said that those opposing the offer are a “small minority.”

That vocal group handed out leaflets urging teachers to reject the offer “because we can do better.”

Janette Gambitz called the list of other concessions “extremely petty” and pinned two papers to her sweater urging teachers to vote no.

Her prediction for Friday’s results?

“I can’t tell you how it’s going to go.”