Mike Antonucci’s Union Report appears weekly at LA School Report. Leaders of United Teachers Los Angeles continued their preparations for a strike by approving the transfer of up to $3 million from the union’s strike fund to its general fund in order to be ready for immediate use. The first mediation session is scheduled for Sept. 27,...

With talks between United Teachers Los Angeles and LAUSD at a tense impasse and teachers voting overwhelmingly to authorize a strike, there’s one group caught in the middle that’s largely been left out of the discussion: L.A.’s kids. A strike would have a dramatic impact on the kids and families of Los Angeles, where 84...

Mike Antonucci’s Union Report appears weekly at LA School Report. Employees who work for the California Teachers Association claim union managers are trying to renege on an agreement in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Janus ruling, which ended the practice of unions charging agency fees to represent non-members. With teachers now free to withhold payments,...

An open letter from Katie Braude, executive director of Speak UP, to President Mónica García, Vice President Nick Melvoin, and members of the board: I am writing to share the collective dismay of parents and community members who attended the board meeting on Tuesday, Aug. 21. In particular, I am writing on behalf of the...

Mike Antonucci’s Union Report appears weekly at LA School Report. I’m on the record as predicting United Teachers Los Angeles will go on strike the week of October 8th. Two things have since become clear: 1) Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent Austin Beutner is actively trying to delay the inevitable. 2) UTLA is irate about Beutner messing...

Mike Antonucci’s Union Report appears weekly at LA School Report. I have covered California’s teacher unions for about 25 years, so my archive is filled with many tales of humor and woe regarding their doings. As I dug through the files I came across seven sagas that have faded over time and deserve one more revival. Do...

Mike Antonucci’s Union Report appears weekly at LA School Report. Last week’s column (“Bet the ranch — UTLA will strike in October”) seems to have touched a nerve. Some readers thought it was cynical to declare a strike inevitable. Others suggested a strike could be easily avoided if the Los Angeles Unified School District board would only...

Mike Antonucci’s Union Report appears weekly at LA School Report. With large membership losses on the horizon, the California Teachers Association will take advantage of its current strength and devote considerable resources to state and local political campaigns this fall. The 325,000-member teachers union is spending the summer devising strategy to help elect Gavin Newsom as governor...

Last week we highlighted how the California Teachers Association and its largest local affiliate, United Teachers Los Angeles, wield a disproportionate amount of power over the policies of their parent union, the National Education Association. UTLA is also affiliated with the smaller of the two national teacher unions, the American Federation of Teachers. AFT just...

The National Education Association held its annual Representative Assembly in Minneapolis last week. Six thousand delegates, representing teachers and education support workers in every state, met to debate and vote on the national union’s budget and agenda for the 2018-19 school year. Each year the delegates amend NEA’s constitution and by-laws, federal legislative program, resolutions,...