LOS ANGELES – Los Angeles school officials upped the ante in union contract negotiations last week to offer school employees a 4 percent bonus and 2 percent salary increase, but union officials snubbed their noses and are planning to strike.
“We are going to continue to fight to get better compensation for our educators, because we need that to recruit and retain the best,” United Teachers Los Angeles union president Alex Caputo-Pearl told the Los Angeles Daily News.
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Caputo-Pearl became UTLA president this year by promising members a double-digit pay increase, and has led teachers in massive protests to pressure district officials to pay up over the last four months of bargaining. The pressure tactics convinced district negotiators to double the cash from their previous offer, even though is far more than taxpayers can afford.
“I think it’s very important for our employees, including UTLA, to see a change in their compensation this year that is positive,” Vivian Ekchian, LAUSD’s chief labor negotiator, told the news site. “This would not be the end of the negotiation; this would just immediately put our employees in a better place financially.”
But UTLA’s demand for a double-digit pay raise, coupled with other demands to reduce class sizes, is an “impossibility.”
According to the Daily News:
A 10 percent salary jump alone would cost the district $107 million more than it is offering to pay out this year. And since the majority of LAUSD’s proposed pay deal is in the form of one-time bonuses, the two sides remain separated by more than $215 million in permanent salary increases this year.
The district’s general fund, which picks up on-going payroll costs, has a projected deficit of $326 million in the fiscal year that starts July 1, according to district officials. As it stands, closing that shortfall will require personnel and service cuts, LAUSD noted in the pay proposal that explains why LAUSD can’t offer more permanent pay increases.
In order to cover the cost of teacher bonuses, Ekchian said LAUSD would have to take $81 million that was supposed to cover the future costs of health care for retirees. The district has promised to pay out an estimated $11 billion more in medical expenses over the coming decades than it has set aside, according to projections performed by an independent auditor.
Meeting all of UTLA’s demands would put the school’s general fund budget in the hole for $1.8 billion over three years. “Me too” clauses in contracts for school principals and others would also require the district to pay any perks teachers receive to others, as well.
UTLA is currently building support among teachers and the public through its Schools LA Students Deserve campaign for what could be the first strike since 1989.
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When contract negotiations began, UTLA opened with a demand for a 17.6 percent raise over two years, while the district was offering a 2 percent raise, according to the LA School Report.
UTLA has since reduced its offer to 10 percent over one year, while the district added bonus money.
Both sides are also at odds over a new teacher evaluation system that uses student performance as one of several factors for consideration.
“While district officials sought to bring the evaluation system into Nov. 14 negotiations, requesting the union participate in a committee that would change certain aspects, union leaders prefer to keep that fight in California’s Public Employment Relations Board,” the Daily News reports.
UTLA is expected to formally reject the district’s latest offer when bargaining reconvenes Dec. 16.
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