Orange Teachers Walk Out of Talks

Teachers union representatives walked out of contract negotiations Monday with the Orange Unified School District, all but ensuring that a scheduled two-day walkout will begin Wednesday. In a related development, a Superior Court judge dismissed a $75-million class-action lawsuit filed against the district on behalf of its retired teachers.

Representatives of the 1,500-member Orange Unified Education Assn. left the bargaining table Monday after district negotiators refused to undergo mediation on 1998-2000 teacher contracts, said Bill Shanahan, the union’s executive director.

Orange teachers have been planning a walkout since trustees of the 30,000-student district retroactively imposed a 1998-2000 contract in March without union consent.

District officials hoped to avert a walkout by coming to an agreement Monday on a contract for the next academic year.

But union negotiators would not broach that topic until they could be heard on the 1998-2000 contract, Shanahan said, which led to the impasse. “We feel that we tried to offer a way around the issues by suggesting the mediation,” he said. “The district chose not to go that route.”

District spokeswoman Judith Frutig said the two sides have already been through mediation on the 1998-2000 contracts. “We’ve been there and done that,” she said. “We want to move ahead and negotiate a 2000-2001 contract.”

The contract the board approved in March gives teachers a retroactive 8% pay raise over the 1998-2000 school years, bringing the salaries of the most veteran teachers to $56,560.

The union’s last proposal would have included larger raises for veteran teachers. Salaries would range from $32,000 at entry level to a maximum of $63,980.

The last-minute meeting came as the district prepared for staff absences Wednesday and Thursday by offering more than double its usual $100 daily rate for substitute teachers and hiring private security guards for campuses.

By late Monday, more than 500 teachers in Los Angeles, Orange and Riverside counties had responded to the district’s ads offering $250 per day for substitutes who passed a background check, said Robert Howell, the district’s director of human resources.

Howell said at least 800 substitutes will be ready to report during the walkout, which the district expects will keep 850 to 1,000 Orange teachers out of the classroom.

The district also sent letters to students’ homes last week, assuring parents that schools will remain open and that instruction will carry on as usual.

At Monday’s meeting, district negotiators offered the teachers a voluntary lifetime medical-benefits buyout of as much as $20,000 over five years, available at retirement. This was a concession on an earlier proposal of mandatory buyout over 10 years at age 65, said Frutig.

The union also offered a compromise Monday, saying it would accept a $1,000 decrease in health benefits, Shanahan said.

Rancorous contract negotiations between the district and the teachers union have lasted for two years. District officials have said they cannot afford to pay teachers what the union is requesting and stay afloat financially. Meanwhile, union officials have questioned the validity of the district’s budget figures.

Last week, a Superior Court judge dismissed a lawsuit filed on behalf of 700 retired Orange teachers. The lawsuit, which sought class-action status, claimed that the district reneged on 23-year-old promise to give retirees free lifetime medical benefits in exchange for lower salaries.

In dismissing the suit, Judge John C. Woolley said the retired teachers filed suit too soon--before they had exhausted all options through the Public Employment Relations Board.

James A. Bowles, the school district’s lawyer, said in a statement that the purpose of the failed lawsuit was to overturn a contract negotiated by the district and the teachers union in 1997, which required any new retirees to enter a health-maintenance organization plan. Plaintiff David Reger said he was not aware that the suit was dismissed; his lawyers could not be reached for comment late Monday.

Two similar suits, one for $35 million filed on behalf of retired janitors and clerical workers and one for $19 million filed for retired administrators, are pending.

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Times staff writer Kate Folmar contributed to this report.