Saturday, July 26, 2014

UNION INVITES TEACHERS, PARENTS AND THE PUBLIC TO THE BARGAINING TABLE WITH LAUSD

By Thomas Himes, Los Angeles Daily News | http://bit.ly/1ou6N2a

7/24/14, 11:22 PM PDT  ::  After meeting with Los Angeles Unified officials for the first round of face-to-face contract negotiations Thursday, United Teachers Los Angeles announced plans to change its bargaining tactics.

The 35,000 or so member teachers union initiated those changes Thursday, bringing all seven union officers to the bargaining table. In future negotiations, UTLA will invite rank-and-file teachers to sit in on talks and hopes “to bring in parents and other public observers from the community and universities.”

UTLA is about $280 million per year in pay apart from the district’s proposal and also disagrees with other aspects that would change teacher evaluations, hand control of classroom bell schedules to administrators and other issues that affect classrooms.

“In many ways, their offer represents a ‘throwback’ to bad ideas the district had in past years that did not work,” UTLA President Alex Caputo-Pearl said after Thursday’s negotiations.

The district’s most recent proposal would give teachers back-to-back pay raises of 2 percent this year and next, with a final third increase of 2.5 percent on July 1, 2016. Additionally, teachers would collect a one-time payout equal to 2 percent of their salaries, under the district’s offer.

LAUSD spokeswoman Lydia Ramos said the district explained its proposal to union representatives at the meeting, which was “cordial.”

District officials have previously requested two additional face-to-face negotiations, on Aug. 6 and Aug. 21.

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