-
Antonucci: UTLA is already planning to spend Measure EE money twice
*Updated May 8 Mike Antonucci’s Union Report appears weekly at LA School Report. Measure EE, the proposed L.A. Unified parcel tax on the June 4 ballot, has a steep hill to climb. It needs a two-thirds majority to pass, and a wide assortment of business groups have lined up to oppose it. What’s more, a last-minute change...
By Mike Antonucci | May 7, 2019
-
Antonucci: Will the state legislature pass the unions’ charter school wish list?
Mike Antonucci’s Union Report appears weekly at LA School Report. California’s public employee unions have fought tooth-and-nail against charter schools ever since the law authorizing them was introduced by Democratic Senator Gary Hart in 1992. It’s fair to say that many things have changed in the state over the years — the composition of the legislature and...
By Mike Antonucci | April 23, 2019
-
Antonucci: Los Angeles unions open campaign spigots for special elections
Mike Antonucci’s Union Report appears weekly at LA School Report. Campaign season came a little early in Los Angeles this year, with the open District 5 school board seat and Measure EE, the parcel tax proposal to fund city schools. United Teachers Los Angeles is devoting its sizable war chest to these elections, and its union allies...
By Mike Antonucci | April 16, 2019
-
Antonucci: Is the Sacramento teacher strike legal, and will it open the floodgates to new strikes, even re-upping them in L.A. and Oakland?
Mike Antonucci’s Union Report appears weekly at LA School Report. Another California school district in financial crisis is facing a teacher strike, but Thursday’s one-day walkout in Sacramento is something different than what we’ve seen so far this year, and it might not be legal. But that’s not stopping the Sacramento City Teachers Association from hinting at...
By Mike Antonucci | April 9, 2019
-
Antonucci: New California Teachers Association president elected in upset
Mike Antonucci’s Union Report appears weekly at LA School Report. Delegates to the California Teachers Association State Council elected E. Toby Boyd as the union’s next president last weekend in Los Angeles. Boyd defeated CTA’s sitting vice president, Theresa Montaño, for the position. It is rare for an incumbent union second-in-command looking to move up to be...
By Mike Antonucci | April 2, 2019
-
Antonucci: California Federation of Teachers elects new leaders
Mike Antonucci’s Union Report appears weekly at LA School Report. The California Federation of Teachers has a new president for the first time since 2011. Delegates elected Jeff Freitas to the position at the union’s biennial convention in Los Angeles this past weekend. CFT is the smaller of California’s two statewide teacher unions, with approximately 85,000 members....
By Mike Antonucci | March 26, 2019
-
Antonucci: Unions ramp up strike preparations in Santa Rosa and Sacramento
Mike Antonucci’s Union Report appears weekly at LA School Report. After teacher strikes in Los Angeles and Oakland, union leaders see districtwide job actions as the perfect tool to check off all those boxes on their wish lists. The next venues appear to be Santa Rosa and Sacramento — for different reasons, although increased funding is behind...
By Mike Antonucci | March 19, 2019
-
Antonucci: Proposed Los Angeles parcel tax may give to teachers with one hand and take with the other
Mike Antonucci’s Union Report appears weekly at LA School Report. *Updated March 15 Things are definitely looking up for teacher unions, especially in California. Membership losses were less than feared after the U.S. Supreme Court’s Janus ruling. A wave of teacher strikes led to settlements with more funding. The 2018 elections went well, with a friendly governor...
By Mike Antonucci | March 12, 2019
-
Antonucci: L.A. and Oakland teacher strike settlements are structured differently, but the results are the same
Mike Antonucci’s Union Report appears weekly at LA School Report. The Oakland teacher strike came to an end after seven days with another “historic” contract agreement. As was the case in Los Angeles, the previous Oakland contract had expired in June 2017. The strike lasted the same amount of time. Both were settled after mediation by outside...
By Mike Antonucci | March 5, 2019
-
Antonucci: Oakland teachers are set to strike, and just like L.A., a ‘leap of faith’ will be needed to end it
Mike Antonucci’s Union Report appears weekly at LA School Report. A day after a state fact-finding panel released its report, the Oakland Education Association announced a strike date of Feb. 21. On its face, this seems strange. The union released a press statement with the headline “Factfinding Recommendations Endorse OEA’s Bargaining Positions.” The district released a statement...
By Mike Antonucci | February 20, 2019